The Blood of Olympus (Fan Fiction)
by sheltie26
Summary: My interpretation of what the final installment of the Heroes of Olympus series will be like, including prophetic dreams, epic battles, showdown of good and evil, and much more. Warning: Does contain graphic violence and nerve-wracking cliff-hangers.
1. Chapter 1- Percy

** Author's Note: Oh, hi everyone! *Nervously glances at watch* Has it really been about 10 months? Wow, where does the time go….. Ok, guys I'm going to start with saying I am so so so so so sorry that I haven't even posted a notice about what was happening, when I promised you guys this story right after I finished reading House of Hades. I could make a dozen excuses about how I have been dealing with a lot of medical stuff, like being told that I have to have my hip replaced in a couple months, my third surgery on my hip, and I'm a teenage girl. Or that my brother just left for college and it's been crazy getting him ready, or the fact that I am taking all honors courses, and have about 6 hours of homework a night, and I am in Girl Scouts and Mock Trial. But all those things are just excuses, and you guys don't deserve that, so I just want to say I'm sorry, and I hope all of you can find it somewhere in your fandom-filled hearts to forgive me. My main problem is planning out what is going to be in each chapter, that's the part that always gives me headaches, so to fix that, I actually have planned out every single chapter of this Fan Fiction, before I even started writing it, I actually finished my planning last night at 2 o'clock in the morning. The point is I know exactly what is happening with this story, so because of that I will hopefully be able to update daily (if all goes as planned). Right now, I have scheduled there to be around 34 chapters, meaning I would finish this around October 25****th**** or so. Yes, I am aware that is after the actual Blood of Olympus is coming out, but I am willing to wait on reading that and finding out what happens, for your guys' sake and my promise that I would write and complete this. Anyway, this Author's Note has gone on long enough, I'll say more in my next update (which should be tomorrow, latest Wednesday), have fun reading the first chapter!**

Chapter 1- Percy POV

_The entire world seemed to be consisted solely of darkness and pain. Percy felt like that each breath he drew would be the last, he knew the curses brought on by the Arai were sucking his life away and he only had minutes left, but he felt like the worst part of dying at that moment would be that Annabeth would forever think that he had abandoned her. Just the very thought of that caused Percy more pain than every monster in the world ever could._

_It tore Percy's heart in two to see Annabeth, her angelic blonde hair lying filthy and life-less on her shoulders, almost brown in color now, and her previous natural Californian tan replaced with a sickly grey complexion. Worst of all, her normally calculating grey eyes, were now completely color and sightless. _

_ "Annabeth! Wise Girl, please! I'm right here, I would never abandon you! Please snap out of it!" Screaming may mot have been a very bright idea to do, because it caused Percy's sight to darken even more, but he couldn't die without trying to help his Wise Girl, or at least say good-bye. _

_But Annabeth showed no sign that she had even an inkling that her love was just a few feet away from her, slowly dying, and continued to wander hopelessly around. _

"_Bob! Please, help Annabeth…" _

But whatever else Percy was going to plead of the only creature in the pit of evil that showed him and Annabeth a shred of kindness, without knowing at all who they were, just knowing that they were potential friends, was cut off short by a sudden feeling of being tossed into a freezing pool but not actually have any water touching you.

Percy nearly cracked his spine sitting up too fast in his bed, not even aware that he was sobbing uncontrollably, only conscious of the fact that his heart felt like it was trying to burst out of his chest and the agonizing pain in his lungs.

Desperately trying to get his breathing under control because hyperventilating felt like he was being stabbed by hundred of knives at once, only then did Percy notice that his bed was soaking wet and he was completely dry, and that the entire crew of the Argo II, even Leo who rarely came out of the Control Room anymore, was staring at him with wide worry-filled eyes.

Everyone was looking at him like they expected him to start screaming his head off again and they also looked like they were all barely restraining themselves from asking what his nightmare had been about. Everyone, but one certain daughter of Athena.

Annabeth was the only one whose face was filled with compassion and understanding, because she was the only one who could remotely fathom what he was feeling like right now, both physically and emotionally.

Falling and having to travel through Tartarus did more damage to Percy then he let on. His bones were constantly achy and he had barely any appetite anymore, a very sudden change from his previous ability of being able to eat anything in sight. Also, ever since they escaped from the Doors of Death 2 days ago, he had been having odd moments where excruciating pain in his lungs would seize him, and he could barely think, let alone function when these episodes occurred. Worse, no amount of ambrosia and nectar would work, and there was no clear sign of what was causing it.

The emotional trauma was even worse though than the physical. Having sore bones, lack of appetite, and random bursts of pain, Percy could deal with, he had overcome worse injuries. But he had no idea how to cope with the damage to his mind and his emotions.

Seeing Tartarus as it was when he was seconds from death, a living-breathing creature that he was inside of, is enough to take a serious toll on anyone's mental stability. Even though, Percy managed to hold onto his presence of mind by a thread, he barely had any time to recover before he was forced to go completely against his nature and try to kill Akhlys with her own poison.

But worst of all, he had enjoyed the feeling of almost killing the goddess of poison. Having the control over deciding whether or not she could live or die, was sickly satisfying to Percy, and that terrified him. He was afraid that he would lose control of his emotions one day, and do something he and everyone else would regret, and there would be nothing he could do to prevent himself.

Anyway, Annabeth was the only person in the world who could possibly understand what Percy was going through, because she was most likely feeling it too. By her placing an arm on his shoulder, Percy knew she was trying to tell him that she knew he had been dreaming of Tartarus, and that it was OK, they were out and alive.

It was a statement of how much they loved and knew each other that they could communicate so well without words with one another. One look between their green and grey eyes, and they had a silent agreement that Percy didn't have to tell everyone just yet what they went through, but he had to talk to her eventually and tell her what was wrong.

Although, Percy didn't like it, especially because he knew he would have extreme difficulties hiding the recent pain in his lungs from his Wise Girl, he knew that if he didn't agree, she would force him to tell everyone, and he just wasn't ready yet. But more importantly, he knew she wasn't quite prepared to do that either, and he would never put her through more trauma then what she had already been through, not if he could help it.

"Percy, are you OK? It sounded like you were slowly being tortured to death a minute ago. You know that you can tell us anything, right?" Only Leo would ignore the tension in the room and walk up to the elephant in the room, knowing full aware of the numerous fierce glares he would receive from the rest of the Seven.

Smiling slightly at the sight of Hazel sharply elbowing Leo in the ribs and Piper smacking him on the back of his head, Percy takes a deep breath, ignoring the stabbing pain, and starts his reassurance, something he is sacredly good at now.

"I'm fine guys, really I am. Yes, it was a flashback from Tartarus, but I'm not ready yet for all of you to know yet, and neither is Annabeth. We know though that we can count on you guys, and believe us, we greatly appreciate that support."

Frank, Piper, Jason, Leo, and Hazel all look like they want to argue and try to force the story of the nightmare out of him, but they all know him well enough to know that would never work. So sharing one big group glance with each other, which was actually kind of creepy on how in sink they all were, the five of them all gave Percy and Annabeth smiles to show that they accepted their decision and that they could talk when they were ready.

"Alright people of the Argo II, now that we are sure that one of our members isn't dying a slow-painful death in front of us, we need to discuss what our exact plan of getting to Athens in 12 days. Festus told me that the journey uninterrupted would take about 3 days, however, what are the odds that old Dirt Face will let us have easy lives for once?"

Percy could tell that Leo was desperately trying to diffuse the tension in the room by telling lamer than normal jokes, which he did greatly appreciate, because at least that way the rest of the crew were thinking of the plan, not him and his health.

Although, when Leo made the crack of him dying a slow-painful death, and his eyes flickered over to him, Percy could have sworn that his normally joking brown eyes, darkened slightly, perhaps in anger or resentment.

But before Percy could ponder what he may or may not have seen in Leo's expression, there was suddenly a very large thump that shook the entire boat, followed by an ear-splitting screech of something very mad and bent on destroying everything in its path.

**Dislcaimer:**

**Percy: "I don't know whether or not to be pleased or annoyed of having to wait that long to find out what was happening to me and the world in general."**

**Me: "I have reached my decision on your (and everyone else's fate) but you will just have to wait and see what it is."**

**Percy: "Aw, you don't want to give me a sneak-peak on my destiny, Rick would you know."**

**Me: "One, I doubt that. Two, even if he did, this is my Fan Fiction, he gets to own the original plot-line and all rights associating with you and your world. Anyway, I will give you, and everyone else, a little bit more information in the next chapter, this is it for now! (I know this was a little bit dull, but this is just the first chapter, believe me, there will be **_**plenty**_** of action and drama in this story!) Sorry again for the 10 month absence, I hope I can make it you to you all!"**


	2. Chapter 2- Percy

** Author's Note: Hello again! See I told you guys I would try my best to update daily now to make-up for my previous extended absence! Originally, I had planned this chapter and the previous chapter to be combined into a very dramatic and action-filled chapter, but it was way too long for a first chapter of the story, so I split it into two. Now I just wanted to mention something really quick before everyone can find out what is happening with the Seven, and that is that as this story progresses, you may see a couple similarities between this story and my other completed Fan Fiction from last year of The House of Hades, and I have my reasons behind doing that, which I will explain if needed when the time comes. Also, for the POVs, I am doing what Rick did in The House of Hades which is include all of the Seven (Nico will also have a POV as well as another bonus character), but not in any specific order, so like this chapter is narrated again by Percy. All right, now without further ado, let us see who is attacking the Seven (this time around).**

Chapter 2- Percy POV

The second Percy heard the ear-splitting screech followed by what seemed like a dozen sets of claws landing, his face lost all its remaining color as he exchanged a panic-filled look with Annabeth. The other demigods of the Argo II looked like they didn't recognize the monsters that had just arrived by the sound but they had enough sense to jump to their feet anyway.

Ignoring the return of the excruciating burning pain in his lungs, Percy sprinted up the stairs with the others up to the main deck, already drawing Riptide out of his pants pocket and uncapping it, letting it extend to its full sword-glory. He could see out of the corner of his eye, how tense and anxious Annabeth looked, and Percy knew he must have an identical expression on his face, and he wished that for once, the world would give them a break, wasn't it enough they had saved Olympus once and later survived Tartarus, closing the Doors of Death?

Before he could contemplate the injustice of the universe any further, Percy skidded onto the main deck and saw exactly what was attacking them, and the situation was worse than he had originally feared.

Originally, Percy thought that they were being attacked by just Stymphalian Birds, based on the sound their landing had made, judged only on his sole encounter with them almost 4 years ago, in his second year of camp, during the dreadful chariot race. But now, he saw that the Stymphalian Birds weren't what they really had to worry about, he recognized that they were there almost for a distraction, that the real challenges were the Sphinx and Echidna who both looked like they would like better to do worse to them than tear them to shreds.

It was a testament of how well the Seven knew one another, each other's strengths and weaknesses, that nothing needed to be said, everyone just knew what they needed to do, what to fight with, who to fight, and who to partner with.

Automatically, Percy saw that Leo set both his hands ablaze and ran to join Frank, who had transformed himself into a giant dragon, and Hazel in distracting the Stymphalian Birds. Piper and Annabeth immediately took out their weapons, Katropis and the drakon-bone blade respectively, and went after the Sphinx, who looked like she recognized Annabeth from their previous encounter in the Labyrinth, where Annabeth had beaten it at its own game of riddles.

That left Percy and Jason to tackle the problem of Echidna, the mother of all monsters. While Percy wasn't thrilled to be facing her again, she was one of the few monsters he had faced but not defeated, battling her when he was 12 on top of the St. Louis Arch where her pet dog, the Chimera (long story), was able to stab him with it's poisonous snake tail. While she didn't look as dangerous as she did back when they faced off on his very first quest and she had the Chimera as her weapon, Percy knew that she had other tricks up her sleeve to destroy them all.

While Percy's knee-jerk instinct may have been to partner with Annabeth, he was glad that he had Jason fighting by his side, due to them having similar powers, and when those powers and their fighting styles combined, they were a pretty epic team, even able to defeat twin giants just the two of them (Bacchus was no help whatsoever, no matter what the god will certainly tell you otherwise).

So before giving themselves a chance to chicken out, Percy exchanged a quick glance with Jason, who looked like he wanted to object with Percy fighting so soon when he looked absolutely dreadful but was resigned to the fact that the Seven needed him and his fighting abilities. Without a word exchanged, Jason raised his arms, quickly summoning pitch-black clouds filled with electricity around him, and Percy raised his own arms adding water to the lightning-charged clouds, effectively creating a raging hurricane around them, which they did notice was harder to do in the Mediterranean than it had been before.

"Is that all you got mighty son of Jupiter? No wonder both the Romans and the Greeks don't want you as either of their leaders! And what happened to the unbeatable Percy Jackson? Not so great now that Daddy isn't around to protect you!" Taunted Echidna, baring her fangs and hissing her snake-like tongue.

Barely paying Echidna's taunts any attention, Percy saw out of the corner of his eye Piper charm-speaking the Sphinx into confusion, desperately trying to make it forget its purpose of attacking them. If it was any other demigod, even Medea herself, wouldn't have been able to efficiently disorient a monster determined to kill, but there was no other demigod like Piper, who possessed the most compelling charm-speak Percy had ever seen or heard of.

It certainly didn't hurt though, that Piper was paired with the smartest child of Athena alive. Percy knew Annabeth well enough to recognize one of her plans, and this certainly was one of them.

Just as he was thinking that, the Sphinx suddenly had a razor-sharp drakon-bone sword protruding from its chest, and within that second, it exploded into a pile of golden monster dust, smelling slightly of the usual burnt rubber, revealing a smirking Annabeth, completely satisfied that her plan was executed flawlessly.

Percy snapped back to attention to his own fight to quickly perform a clumsy back-handspring to dodge one of Echidna's vivid-green serpent tails, aimed at his shoulder. Unfortunately, as soon as Percy's feet touched the ground again, Echidna sent her other tail at the fleshy part of his right thigh.

Before the tail was able to connect though, a great lightning strike appeared and blasted Echidna backwards into the side of the railing, almost pushing her overboard. She sadly recovered just in time to prevent herself from plummeting into the sea, and didn't even look affected by the 100-volt attack Jason had just sent at her.

Using speed that no one knew she possessed, Echidna whipped one of her serpent-tails at Jason before either of them could react, hitting his chest with the force of an iron-clad punch, making the son of Jupiter fly backwards and slam into the aged look-out pole, that teetered unsteadily at the sudden impact, where he lay still.

Even though he wanted to make sure Jason was OK, Percy knew that he had to take care of Echidna once and for all before he could do that. However, it was just his misfortune that the burning sensation in his lungs would return with ten times its usual force, almost making him pass out on the spot.

Desperately trying to blink the black spots out of his eyes, Percy wasn't able to see Echidna's other tail coming at him, roughly seizing his right arm, snapping his humerus into two, making him drop Riptide, his only weapon that he possessed that wouldn't sap his already dangerously low-energy.

Before Echidna could launch another attack to either further incapacitate or kill him, Percy quickly closed his eyes and brought forth all his remaining concentration to summon a giant wave to crash down upon Echidna, knocking her onto her back.

This was when it was obviously a disadvantage to have the body of a serpent, because it prohibited you from getting up quickly in a giant puddle of water, a lesson Echidna was learning the hard way. Just as she was about to recover her senses, Percy was able to clumsily pick up Riptide with his left hand from where he had dropped it, and quickly stabbed Echidna in her chest, right where the form of woman and snake met.

"My mistress will make you regret this son of Poseidon! Just you wait, she will have your blood and it will be the end of your precious Olympians and little half-blood friends!" Was Echidna's last words before she too returned to Tartarus to wait, hopefully, many years before she could reform to terrorize the world once more.

Now that his opponent was defeated, all the adrenaline immediately left Percy's bloodstream, and he collapsed to his knees, his head swimming in pain, from both his broken arm and his lungs.

The last thing Percy saw before the darkness completely took over his mind was Leo shooting fire at the last of the Stymphalian Birds, Frank breathing fire at them, and Hazel manipulating the mist to make them think they were surrounded by bronze bells ringing, effectively making the rest of them flee from the Argo II, leaving behind the mountains of dust which was the only remains of their fellow monsters.

**Disclaimer:**

**Percy: "Judging by just these first two chapters, I'm guessing you didn't think that I suffered enough in Rick's House of Hades?"**

**Me: "It's not that, I stand by what I said so many months ago, the action and drama of injury, really does add to the story. Although, this time around maybe I will be a little bit more nicer to you, maybe only injure you every other chapter instead."**

**Percy: "Yes! Wait a minute, that's not much better! How about not hurting me at all?"**

**Me: "I'll consider it, remember though it all depends on me, because this is my Fan Fiction, not the official Blood of Olympus, that is unfortunately exclusively owned by Rick Riordan."**


	3. Chapter 3- Jason

**Author's Note: I want to start with saying that I am so sorry that I wasn't able to update yesterday. I had Mock-Trial try-outs right after school and was dealing with some Girl Scout stuff, as well as a lot of homework for all my honors classes, leaving me with absolutely no time to write. However, today I literally spent the entire day, I had off from school due to the Jewish holiday, writing this chapter, making it my longest chapter I've ever written, at over 5,000 words. Also, just so you guys know, next chapter I will start responding to reviews, I just wanted to get this chapter out as soon as possible, and didn't have time to do it. But I want to thank everyone who reviewed, trust me I read every single review, and they all mean a lot to me and give me inspiration to keep going. So again, thank you all so much for so much positive feedback on this story!**

Chapter 3- Jason POV

Up until a moment ago, Jason's least favorite monster probably had to go to the Trojan sea monster, but now, that award definitely went to Echidna. Having a snake-like tail slam into his chest, making him fly into a pole, knocking him out, again, was enough to make Jason wish that he could kill Echidna himself. Unfortunately, he knew that Percy probably already took care of that.

If this fight had occurred two weeks ago, before Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, then Jason knew that he would be feeling white-hot rage coursing through his veins at the thought of Percy defeating a monster moments after it had just gotten the best of him. Now, however, Jason was just glad that if he couldn't be out there fighting, then it was Percy who had his back. Having the strength to rather go to Tartarus rather than let his girlfriend go alone, then to actually survive the evil pit, and still be relatively sane afterwards, made anyone OK in Jason's book, even the son of Poseidon.

While it was still humiliating to be knocked unconscious, yet again, although at least this time it wasn't the brick that hurt him, Jason just hoped that Percy had made it through the fight relatively unharmed. Jason had seen how vicious Echidna had been fighting, and the guy didn't need any other things to deal with, on top of what his mind was already coping with.

Looking back on this moment months afterwards, Jason always wondered if what happened next was bound to happen or if by somehow thinking of Percy had somehow summoned him to where Jason's mind currently was residing in its unconscious state. Because just then, as Jason was wondering about him and his well-fare, the son of Poseidon's shimmering form suddenly appeared next to him, almost scaring the life out of Jason.

As the son of Jupiter was trying to get his erratic breathing under control, he took a good look at the bewildered Percy next to him, who was currently staring at Jason like he was a ghost come life. While Jason had only seen about a dozen Iris-Messages in his entire life, the Romans hated using them so he didn't know about them until he came to Camp Half-Blood, Jason thought that he was perhaps viewing Percy through one, only there wasn't any rainbow or water around.

Percy's normally skinny but muscular form, although his muscles had admittedly become less pronounced from the trauma of Tartarus, looked like it was made of water and was see-through like he was actually a ghost. Despite this, Jason could clearly see that his right arm was hanging at a sickening angle, which made Jason's heart go out to the guy, because he knew that it was Percy's sword arm that was broken. Also, Jason observed that Percy's normally bright sea-green eyes were looking very dull, whether that was from pain or his current condition, or both, he didn't have the faintest clue.

"Umm, Jason? Why are you staring at me? It's getting kind of creepy dude... Anyway, where are we?"

Startled out his musings by Percy's questions, Jason realized that he hadn't even figured out yet where he was, which he just now saw that they were in a basically solid-white room, with nothing else in it. Before he could tell Percy that his guess was just as good as his concerning their current location, Jason felt a giant tug in his gut and the world was suddenly spinning around him into a blur of colors. Just as he was beginning to feel nauseous, from both the movement and the pain in his ribs that he hadn't noticed before, he was suddenly deposited into what appeared as a humongous damp underground tunnel.

A sideway glance to his right proved that Percy was once again floating right next to him, and looked just as freaked out as Jason was feeling. But before Jason could ponder too much on their newfound setting or open his mouth to talk to Percy, his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting enough to make out that they weren't alone in the strange room-like tunnel.

There was a black table in the middle of the room, about 50 feet by 100 feet and it looked like it was completely made out of dirt, but that wasn't the alarming part. Around this mysterious humongous table were all the giants, except Clytius who luckily hadn't made it back out through the Doors of Death before they were closed, and Damasen, although he did wonder why the bane of the war god wasn't at what looked like a war meeting. Jason recognized all the giants in attendance, some from personal experience, others from stories that he had heard either from the rest of the Argo II or mythology class back at both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. It would have been weird enough to just witness Alcyoneus, bane of Pluto, Enceladus, bane of Minerva, Polybotes, bane of Neptune, Otis and Ephialtes, banes of Bacchus, Gration, bane of Diana, Mimas, bane of Vulcan, Otus, bane of Apollo, Hippolytus, bane of Mercury, Thoon, bane of Venus, and Jason's least favorite, Porphyrion, the bane of his father, Jupiter, sitting around a table in the first place, like it was an everyday occurrence. But what made the scene downright disturbing was what the 11 giants were debating.

"No Mimas! The best way to win this war is not a direct assault, neither on the camps, gods, or the Seven! We need to slowly wear them out! Break their spirits, make them completely lose hope! Only then will we be victorious!" loudly exclaimed Enceladus, apparently shooting down a plan Mimas had just proposed.

"Enceladus, you are not commander here, I am! And I'm beginning to see merit in doing a mass attack when those puny Olympians and their pathetic children won't see it coming. Why not split up our forces between Olympus, the camps, and the Seven? The Seven are our only main threat at the moment, those puny gods are still suffering from their schizophrenia and the camps are about to be at war with each other!" argued Porphyrion.

"Porphyrion, I understand you are chief here, behind mother and father of course, but do I need to remind you that I am the best strategist we have? It seems like I do, otherwise I wouldn't need to keep insisting that the best way to completely destroy Olympus once and for all is to break them! It is absolutely essential that the camps don't reunite and make up before we attack, so we need to take out the odd trio of the daughter of Bellona, the son of Hades, and that strange little satyr, carrying the Athena Parthenos! If they succeed in their little quest, then I can guarantee you the Greeks will stand down and find a way to convince the Romans that they aren't the threat, we are!

"To prevent that, it is absolutely crucial that we strike those three where it will hurt them the most, and make them lose their motivation of saving their homes. Equally as important, we need to break the Seven, turn them against each other, and basically just make it so they aren't at their full strength when we meet them in battle. Finally, while this isn't as necessary as the other two things, it would definitely be preferential if we could possibly deliver a crushing blow to the Olympians, so even by some miracle they pull together their split-minds, they won't be any match for us.

"Considering these three things, I have the perfect plan, which also helps mother in what she needs for her sacrifices, and yes Otis and Ephialtes it will cause the demigods you hate the most terrible pain…" But just before Jason or Percy could make out what Enceladus was suggesting, they both felt the strange yank in their intestines again and the world was once again spinning around them.

The strange teleportation lasted even longer this time, so Jason was extremely dizzy and out-of-sorts by the time they were deposited in their new location, and he knew that if he wasn't floating above the ground, he would be crumpled on it. Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw that Percy was looking faintly green as well, and was awkwardly swaying while hovering.

"Jason? What did we just see? Why were we brought away just as we were about to find out their plan?" Demanded Percy, like Jason somehow knew more than he did.

"Perce, as far as I can figure right now, we are both unconscious from the fight with Echidna, and I guess we are witnessing events that are currently happening from a third-person view, like a prophetic demigod dream, so we see everything but we really aren't there, if that makes sense. Before you came, I was just in a white room with no one, actually wondering what happened to you, so maybe that is why we are currently experiencing these joint-dreams together.

"Anyway, for what we just saw, my guess is that that was the planning session of the giants, as strange as that is. From what I heard, and what I'm sure you heard too, they were planning the best way for them to be victorious in this war which apparently includes breaking us as in the Seven, both demigod camps, the Olympians, and Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge. On why we were pulled away at the most crucial moment, your guess is just as good as mine," patiently explained Jason.

"Ok, I wonder what the giants' plan is though? I really didn't like it when Enceladus mentioned that their plan would help Gaea rise and would hurt the demigods those stupid twin giants hate the most, whoever they are."

Sometimes Jason wondered if Percy's brain really was made of seaweed, considering he didn't realize that he and Jason were the demigods that Otis and Ephialtes hate the most, being as they had been the last ones to defeat them. He was just about to mention that to the son of Poseidon when Percy suddenly shushed him and started frantically pointing to something behind Jason.

Although he was scowling at being told to shut up, Jason nevertheless did spin around to see what was bothering Percy so much, and nearly got his second heart attack of the day in the process, because he had a ferocious hellhound growling at him, looking ready to pounce.

Before Jason could dive out of the way, the hellhound took off at him, and Jason hurriedly shut his eyes, preparing himself to be torn to shreds by the razor-sharp claws. So you can imagine Jason's shock when the hellhound passed right through him like he was made of butter, and continued on like he wasn't even there.

It took a few moments for Jason's panic-stricken brain to comprehend that he was in all senses, not there, and was actually witnessing the scene in 3rd person. Once Jason realized that, he wanted to smack himself on the head, for he had just finished explaining that exact same concept to Percy not five minutes before.

Shaking his head at his own foolishness, Jason tuned back on the scene just in time to see Reyna stab the hellhound in the eye with her Imperial Gold spear, right before it managed to bite her head off. Cheering for her, she really was a great warrior, one of the best ones in Camp Jupiter, Jason suddenly saw what the battle actually looked like.

He and Percy were in what looked like the middle of a forest, and it there were four dracanae, Jason wondered what it was about female reptile monsters lately because they seemed to be following him and Percy everywhere lately, and three hellhounds, attacking Reyna and Coach Hedge, who was trying to kill everything in sight with his baseball bat and calling everything 'cupcake'.

Just as Jason was wondering where on earth Nico was, he knew that the gothic thirteen-year-old wouldn't have abandoned the mission, the son of Jupiter saw dark demigod propped up against a tree, a couple meters in the distance, right next to the Athena Parthenos, which was still shimmering brightly, passed out. Since he didn't look injured, despite the dark circles under his eyes, Jason figured that Nico had spent too much energy shadow traveling, and lead the three of them into this forest where dracanae and hellhounds had been residing.

Knowing what he did, Jason couldn't bring himself to feel irritation at the son of Hades, he knew that Nico would never purposely put Reyna and Coach Hedge in danger. Jason just wished that Nico would have accepted his help and protection, and had not bull-headily volunteered for this mission just because he refused to both be in the same room as Percy and tell him his feelings. For awhile, Jason prayed that Percy would pick up on Nico's crush, that is until he heard that it took Percy almost five years to realize that Annabeth liked him as more than a friend, something he didn't even pick up on when Annabeth had kissed him on the lips.

While Jason had to struggle with his impulse to tell Percy Nico's feelings himself, something he could easily do right now with Percy hovering right next to him, he knew that he could never betray Nico's trust like that. So even though he desperately wanted to tell someone, especially Piper, for she was both his girlfriend and a daughter of Venus, so she would understand all the relationship drama, Jason realized that for this one, he would just have to be a silent bystander and trustee.

Lost in his thoughts, Jason almost missed seeing Reyna and Coach Hedge backed against a tree, about to be demolished by the two remaining hellhounds. Desperately wishing that he could do something to help them himself, Jason frantically turned to Percy to see if he had some ideas on what they could do. Being in that set of mind, Jason saw red and almost tried to punch Percy, when he saw that Percy was smiling slightly.

Opening up his mouth to demand on why in Hades would Percy be smiling at the thought of Reyna and Coach Hedge be eaten alive, Jason was interrupted by the hellhounds suddenly erupting into gold monster dust. Shocked and wondering on how the heck that happened when neither Reyna nor Coach Hedge had their weapons in their hands, having been disarmed, Jason then saw Nico seemingly appear out of the shadows with his midnight black Stygian Iron sword. That was when the son of Jupiter realized with a rush of gratitude that the teenage demigod had just single-handily took down two hellhounds and saved his two companions' lives.

To Jason, it looked like Reyna and Coach Hedge were just in much shock as he was that they weren't dead, and he saw relief in both their eyes when they realized that it had been Nico that had prevented them from being eaten alive. However, Nico himself just looked exhausted and kind-of pissed off at something, what that was, Jason could probably venture a well-educated guess.

Knowing full well how volatile the son of Hades could get when annoyed, Jason was seriously wishing that he could warn Reyna to back-off when she walked over to where Nico was leaning against a tree, looking like he was trying to gather both his thoughts and energy. Frantically shaking his head, Jason wished that he could somehow redirect Reyna from approaching Nico, but he sadly had to just be content with watching the scene unfold and not interfere.

"Nico! Hey Nico! I just wanted to thank-you for killing those two hellhounds, and saving Coach Hedge and myself, I figure we'd be dog-food if it wasn't for you. I'm sorry you weren't able to rest though, I know how much shadow-traveling is taking out of you." Jason briefly wondered if Reyna could not see the scowl on Nico's face, or if she was just choosing to ignore it.

"You would have done it for me, so no need for the appreciation. Come on, we need to keep moving, this statue isn't going to suddenly give off less energy and attract less monsters, now is it? Better to be gone before they get here, so go get the satyr then we can leave," spat out Nico.

Jason had known Reyna long enough to know that she would cover her hurt at being blown-off with anger, which he had experienced too many times himself.

"What is your problem? I was just saying thank-you, you don't have to act like I just murdered your sister!"

Knowing that Reyna had struck a nerve when Nico's normally black eyes got a tint of red in anger, Jason exchanged a look of dread with Percy, who looked like he too desperately wished that he could interfere between the two demigods.

However, just as Nico's ire had started to attract shadows to him and he was angrily opening his mouth to retort, Percy and Jason felt the tugs in their guts for the third time, but instead of the world starting to spin, the color in everything just faded away.

Jason didn't think this was any better than the spinning and was just about to start panicking, when his eyes suddenly came back into focus to see an artificially painted light-blue sky above him.

"Jason! Percy! You're awake! Are you OK?" Was the first thing both Jason and Percy heard upon awakening, spoken in unison by the worried-laced voices of Piper and Annabeth.

Struggling to sit up with an ace bandage around his ribcage, Jason saw crowding around his and the bed next to him, which he presumed was where Percy lay, was the entire crew of the Argo II, even Leo who rarely left the control room anymore. Upon all his friends' faces was extreme concern and fleeing anxiety, which Jason figured was prominent on all their features when he and Percy were unconscious.

"Hey Annabeth, what happened? Where's Echidna, the Sphinx, and the Stymphalian Birds?"

"Seaweed Brain, don't you remember? You defeated Echidna by knocking her down with a giant wave and then stabbing her, all with a shattered sword arm, I might add. As for the Sphinx, Piper charm-spoke it into confusion allowing me to be able to sneak up behind it and kill it with my sword. Concerning the Stymphalian Birds, most of them are history, at least for now, thanks to Leo's fire, Frank's shape-shifting abilities, and Hazel's skill with manipulating the mist," cautiously explained Annabeth, looking a little bit worried that Percy didn't recall all this on his own.

"Oh right, now I remember everything. No need to look so worried Wise Girl, Jason and I are alright."

Looking like she wanted to argue with that statement, Jason saw Annabeth scowling at Percy's careless attitude concerning his health.

"I'll be having a word with you later about this, Percy. Anyway, I'm afraid to ask, but did you two have any prophetic demigod dreams while you were out?"

With a newfound urgentness, Percy and Jason exchanged one look, and said in perfect unison, "Yes, which is why we really need a meeting ASAP," while they both struggled to maneuver out of bed.

"Wait a minute, Jason! You too Percy! You two aren't going anywhere right now, you need to heal! Jason, you've got two fractured ribs and a mild concussion" Piper exclaimed, with Annabeth nodding her head in agreement, and only then did Jason realize that not only did was his chest bound in an ace bandage, his head was also wrapped in gauze. Looking to his right, Jason saw that Percy too had only just become aware of the padded gauze and sling for his right arm.

"Pipes, what we saw really is urgent, I swear to you that if it could wait, it would. How about though Percy and I promise to return here and stay until we are completely healed, after a meeting?" Jason compromised.

Seeing that they wouldn't get no for answer, Piper and Annabeth both relented, and had to just be satisfied with assisting the two down to the meeting room, no matter how much they protested that they didn't need help.

20 minutes later, finally arriving at the meeting room (also known as the dining room), the demigods all took their normal seats, and they all looked expectedly at Percy and Jason, who realized that they had no idea how they were going to explain everything.

"Err, sorry guys, can you wait like 10 minutes or so? Don't worry this is very urgent news, Percy and I just need to discuss something really quick."

Not waiting for a response, Jason leapt to his feet, ignoring the pain it caused, and hurriedly grabbed Percy's good arm, and swiftly pulled him over to an isolated corner.

"Sorry about that Percy, we just need to collaborate on what exactly we're going to say to them."

"Um, how about the truth? Like what happened, exactly as it occurred? Why wouldn't we do that?"

"Of course we'll them everything, I just need a minute to talk to you about this!"

"Okay….. Well talk I guess."

"I remember you had mentioned before that you were wondering who the demigods are that Otis and Ephialtes hate the most, and it's us, you kelp-head! We defeated them last!"

"So you're saying that we're even more hated by the giants then we were before?"

"Sadly, yes."

"Fantastic."

"I've got to warn you though Perce, it seems like you may be taking the prize of most hated amongst them."

"Oh, and just how do you figure that Sparky?"

Rolling his eyes at the Sparky jab, but knowing he deserved it for the kelp-head comment, Jason just sighed and said, "I can't really explain why I think that, it's just a gut-feeling I've got."

"I hate gut-feelings, they're normally right concerning demigods."

"Believe me, I know. Anyway, I wanted to ask you this before, but I didn't get the chance, but why did Echidna seem particularly keen to cause you the most pain possible."

"Superman, I would have thought that you of all people would realize why she despised me."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that, certainly you have killed a lot of monsters as your lifetime as a demigod, considering you are a child of the Big Three and you found out about your heritage when you were two."

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"Well, do you think all the monsters you've sent back to Tartarus are your biggest fans? No, they all most likely despite your very existence, and want revenge on you."

"I never looked at it like that, but you're right. So I'm guessing that you've encountered Echidna before?"

"Oh yeah, met her on my first quest when I was twelve, she actually is one of the few evil monsters I've met and haven't defeated; and I figure that I'm probably one of the only demigods she's met and hadn't sent to Hades the hard way."

"Out of curiosity, how many of these monsters will now be showing up for revenge on you?"

"Factor in that I'm sure the majority of the monsters I've fought probably escaped through the Doors of Death before we shut them, I would say a fair few."

"Wonderful, you're really going to have to watch your back now with all those monsters and giants after you, not that you weren't doing that before, but you know what I mean."

Jason had meant that as a word of caution for Percy, something he had assumed had been given to the son of Poseidon hundreds of times before, so he didn't expect a sudden nervous glint to appear in Percy's sea-green eyes.

"I know, believe me I am perfectly aware that I am going to have to be the most careful demigod in the world now. Before you ask why, it's because I can't stand the thought of leaving Annabeth alone again."

The part of Jason that empathized with Nico, felt a pang of disappointment at Percy's words, but he couldn't stand to say so once Jason saw in Percy's sincere expression just how much he cares for the brilliant daughter of Athena.

"You love her, don't you?"

"With all my heart and body, I can't stand the thought of ever not being with her. In fact, before Arachne and Tartarus kind of got in the way, I was going to propose to her."

Taking a deep breath, Jason wondered if he was mentally sane due to what he said next. "Well there's no time like the present. Also, I've been considering proposing to Piper as well, I realize that us demigods don't exactly have the longest life spans.

"Going off the topic though of our love lives, if what you said is true about the monsters you've faced now coming after you, might I suggest after we're done telling the crew of our dream, which I'm sure they are all anxiously waiting for since we've been over for like 15 minutes already, you tell them, for lack of better words, your life story, as in all your quests and every mythological enemy you've faced?"

Jason had heard enough about Percy when he was at Camp Half-Blood to expect his response of miserable groan at the thought of sharing his accomplishments, to which Jason rolled his eyes to in amusement, before continuing in a much gentler tone.

"I'm really sorry about having to ask you of this, but you realize right that you are going to have to tell everyone what happened in Tartarus?"

While Jason had expected some sort of vehement denial of the thought of sharing what had occurred, which Jason did respect but the rest of the Seven really did have to know what they were dealing with, he did not expect for Percy's eyes to roll up into the back of his head, and for his knees to give out. Luckily Jason had the stellar reflexes of a demigod, or Percy would have slammed into the wood floor, at least now, he was shaking uncontrollably and desperately clutching his side in apparent agony, in Jason's arms.

Making sure he had a firm grip on Percy's torso first, Jason spun around to scream for Annabeth, only to be shocked that she was already by his side, reaching down to take Percy from his arms.

"Jason, it's ok, I know what's wrong with him, it's a flashback from Tartarus, and I can take a guess what exactly he is reliving. But as much as this pains me to say this, the only thing we can do besides hold him and make sure he knows that we're here and alive, is wait this out," clarified Annabeth, in a serious tone that showed how much it was hurting her to see Percy unaware and vulnerable.

"What were you two talking about anyway? Did you mention Tartarus?"

Jason recognized the accusation in Annabeth's words, but he knew that he couldn't lie to her, not on why her boyfriend was currently trapped within his own memories. So with a heavy heart, Jason told her about their conversation, or at least the later part of it.

By then, Hazel, Frank, Leo, and Piper had all joined there little corner-huddle, and they all just awkwardly kneeled there, watching Percy shout Annabeth's name and that he was right there, he didn't leave her. When Percy shouted a person called Bob's name, everyone but Annabeth all had bewildered expressions, but they knew better than to ask Annabeth who that was.

10 minutes later, Percy was just starting to calm down and the tremors were generally beginning to become less violent. In just a few moments, they completely stopped and Percy's eyelids began to groggily flutter open, to reveal glazed and unfocused sea-green eyes.

Knowing that Percy would hate for everyone to start asking questions about his well-being, Jason said the first thing that came to mind that would distract everyone for the time being.

"Well Percy, it's time for your life story be told."

Ignoring the glare that Annabeth sent his way, Jason was just glad that even though Percy groaned exaggeratedly, he sent a private thankful glance his way.

"Ok, I am going to ask what we are all thinking, why did you two call this meeting in the first place if all you guys were going to do was discuss in secret whispers in the corner? But after you two explain to us what your prophetic demigod dream was about from before, then I would personally love to know what your life story is Percy, I heard it alluded to enough at Camp Half-Blood but no one would tell Sparky, Beauty Queen over there, or myself what it was! Anyway, after that we really do need to discuss a plan for Athens-" but whatever Leo was going to continue to ramble about, was cut off, yet again, by the Argo II suddenly tilting severely on its side, knocking everyone to their sides, before it began to spin uncontrollably.

"Oh come on! Why can't the world just leave my beautiful ship alone? And why do they always interrupt me and my speeches!" exclaimed Leo.

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: "Mwahaha, another cliff-hanger!"**

**Jason: "Really, you had to injure me too?"**

**Me: "Well, I was looking back and saw with my last story, I pretty much only targeted Percy, and I realized I had to be fair."**

**Jason: "You choose now to have a sense of morality?"**

**Me: "Hey! I always have morality, I just choose not to always display it in my Fan Fiction."**

**Jason: "Well, if Rick was writing this, he would always make his morality and goodness clear."**

**Me: "He does that in the actual story, this is just my version of story, Rick still owns all."**

**Percy: "As fascinating as this debate is, what was that about Nico's feelings before?"**

**Me: *Grins evilly* "Oh that? That was about Nico's-"**

**Nico: *Suddenly appears out of the shadows, clamps hand over my mouth, and shadow-travels the both of us away, shooting looks of death at me***


	4. Chapter 4- Annabeth

**Author's Note: I apologize a thousand times over for not updating since Thursday! Believe me, I am trying very hard at writing and updating every day, but life does happen and it is hard for me to keep up with my honors classes and extra-curriculars, and still find time to work on my Fan Fiction every day. So while I promise everyone that I write every single day, on my busier days, I may not be able to complete a whole chapter. Don't worry though, even if I miss a day, I promise I will never give up writing this story until it is complete! But before the story continues, I know I promised last chapter that I would start responding to reviews, and I swear I will, it's just that I am doing this at 11 o'clock on a school night, and I want to get this chapter out as soon as possible. So I swear on the Styx that next chapter, I will respond to all the wonderful reviews that you guys have given me.**

Chapter 4- Annabeth POV

Annabeth wished that just once they could get in a normal _complete_ conversation and planning session, without being interrupted by one monster or another, because this was really getting ridiculous.

If it wasn't bad enough that she had to deal with her boyfriend, more like love of her life, being kidnapped and his memory wiped of his life and her, and then reuniting with said boyfriend only to be then put on the Romans' most-wanted list, going on a solo quest and fighting Arachne, her biggest fear by herself, and then literally falling into her step-great-great-grandfather, no matter how disturbing that sounds, even in the demigod world, she couldn't even have a complete conversation anymore without being attacked by vicious monsters that would like no better than to torture her to death.

While this was all going through her very-active and razor-sharp Athenian mind, Annabeth noticed out of the corner of her eye that most of the crew were all lying in heaps in various positions across the dining room, all trying to regain their bearings, just like Annabeth was, while the boat was still spinning uncontrollably at a nauseating speed. Everyone except a certain son of Poseidon.

Although Percy was still kneeled over on the wooden floor trying to catch his breath, but his dizziness was from his most recent flashback from Tartarus- he couldn't hide what that was from her, not when she went through it too each night- not from the current motion of the ship. Annabeth's first thought was that Percy must just have amazing balance, and while that was certainly true, within the next second the ever-present light bulb in her head went off.

_Of course! _Annabeth thought to herself. _I should have realized it right away, Percy has perfect bearings and balance at sea! _Annabeth had only seen Percy's perfect bearings once, when they were thirteen and in a lifeboat in the Sea of Monsters, but she remembered having thought that was easily the best power that Poseidon had given him. While age and trauma had given her perspective on those type of things, Annabeth still thought that having perfect bearings and balance in the water would come in handy, and it certainly did now for Percy as everyone was struggling to hold on to their lunches, let alone their ability to stand.

However, just as Annabeth came to that conclusion, she realized that certain ability was limited. She knew that Percy couldn't stay on his feat if it had been a monster that attacked the ship, he only retained his balance when the sea itself disrupted the motion of the boat. _Lord Poseidon would never attack us, not when his son is on board. Just because he hasn't made any effort to contact Percy since his sixteenth birthday last summer, and didn't even help us in that awful pit, doesn't mean that he would ever intentionally cause Percy harm, Percy means the world to him! Right? _

At first Annabeth was sure that Lord Poseidon would never hurt the Seven, especially his beloved son. But after some consideration she did realize that every other godly parent had made contact in one way or another with his or her child, she had heard the stories from the others, and it was only Percy without any parental sign from Olympus whatsoever. But she couldn't believe in good conscious that the spinning was caused by Poseidon just yet, she needed solid proof on what was happening, but to get that, she would need to at the very least, be able to stand.

Just as she was thinking that, the whirling of the Argo II suddenly stopped as suddenly as it started, and the ship righted itself again. Not taking any chance in case the sea started acting up again, Annabeth leapt to her feet, ignoring the light-headness she had, and sprinted over to where Percy still remained hunched over, desperately trying to fight off the memories flooding his mind.

Knowing that the worst thing to do would be to pull Percy suddenly to his feet, which would just startle him even worse and send him even further into his own imagination, Annabeth slowly put her hand on Percy's shaking shoulder, drawing him into a tight embrace.

"You're OK, Percy, I'm OK, we're all OK. Please Percy, snap out of it, we're out of that place, and we never have to go back, I swear it. Percy, please come back to me, come back to your Wise Girl," pleaded Annabeth.

Just as Annabeth was about to lose her patience, Percy's eyelids began to flutter and he slowly uncurled from his ball of self-preservation. It took a few moments for Percy to recognize her, and a couple more for his memory to come back, but once it did, he leapt to his feet and immediately started scanning the room for other five demigods.

The rest of the Seven were all in various stages of gathering their wits, but they were all struggling to their feet, trying to overcome their dizziness. Seeing the urgency in the situation, Annabeth and Percy ran to each demigod and pulled everyone to their feet. Wishing that they had more time to recover, the Seven all rushed up to the main deck to see what had disturbed the sea, and what they discovered nearly froze Annabeth's heart in place.

Not even 100 meters up ahead were two giant cliffs, with a strait of very calm water in front of one, and in front of the other, was a whirlpool of the sea and debris. On top of each cliff though, sat two very similar monsters that had identical looks of hunger and anticipation on their deformed faces. It didn't even take Annabeth a second to recognize the two monsters as Scylla and Charybdis, but she wondered why they were here, they normally guarded the entrance to the Sea of Monster sin the Bermuda Triangle, and they were entering the Mediterranean.

However, what confused Annabeth even more was the fact that next to what Annabeth assumed was Scylla, for in front of her cliff was the almost-deathly calm water, was a man that appeared to be completely made of water. But she knew that she couldn't waste anymore time pondering these things just yet, so Annabeth quickly spun around to face the other demigods, to make sure they all knew what they were up against this time.

"Listen up, you guys see those two incredibly hideous monster-ladies? They are Scylla and Charybdis, while they normally guard the Sea of Monsters, they seem to have moved here, probably on orders from Gaea. We have to enter the Mediterranean, and the only way to do that is to get past them.

"Charybdis creates a whirlpool and if you get sucked into it, she eats you, ship and all. Scylla appears to be less dangerous, but she reaches down here and plucks sailors from the deck, and if she doesn't find anyone, she can lift the entire ship, just ask Percy. We faced them back when we were thirteen, so we know a little bit on how to deal with them. Although, I don't know who that guy is with Scylla, do you Percy?" Annabeth asked.

When she turned to face her boyfriend, Annabeth wasn't expecting him to be even paler than before, and that was saying something because he had previous had the complexion of a ghost.

"Percy, what's wrong? Do you know that man?"

"Wise Girl, if he's here, then this is _really_ bad. That's Oceanus, the titan of the ocean, he ruled the oceans and water in general before Poseidon took over. During the First Titan war he was neutral, but during the Second he was on the titans' side, and was battling my father, and even he couldn't defeat him. The last I-" before Percy could finish explaining what he had last heard of Oceanus, there is a sudden clap of thunder, startling everyone.

While they had been talking, no one had been bothering to watch the sky, but now they all saw that a tropical storm, more like full-blown hurricane, was rapidly rolling in. The clouds were almost pitch-black in color, hanging very low in the air like they were severely weighted down, and the winds had picked up in a matter of minutes from a gentle breeze to almost 60 mph, rocking the boat slightly as each gust hit.

The group turns nearly in unison to both Jason and Percy, conveniently standing right next to each other, with almost accusatory glances, although it should be mentioned that they were all privately hoping that this storm was god-created, nothing worse. Unfortunately, they were all severely disappointed when Jason and Percy shook their heads at the same time, signaling that neither of their fathers were causing the storm, at least from what they could tell.

Having an always active and planning brain came in handy a lot of times, especially when she was able to sense things others wouldn't normally think about until it was too late. Annabeth put this particular skill to the test, when she suddenly felt an increase in the electricity in the air around them, causing all their hair to stand up on its roots, and she knew in her gut the reason behind this.

"Everyone down and cover your heads!" Annabeth screamed.

Just as she ordered this, the clouds overhead seemingly cackled, and before anyone could react, a very large and powerful lightning-bolt stroke the water not 5 yards from the right side of the Argo II.

Panic was racing up and down her bloodstream, making it difficult to think clearly, so Annabeth shouted the first plan that popped into her hyperactive head, even if she knew in her heart it was hopeless.

"Percy, Jason, try to use your powers and cast away that storm, even if it wasn't created by your fathers!"

Grim determination set into both boys' features as they both raised their hands and concentrated their wills on forcing away the hurricane. They remained in that stance for a full 5 minutes, with no avail whatsoever, before they finally had to give up on trying, seeing how hopeless it was to continue to waste their energy, this storm just wasn't in their power to cast away.

That was before the ocean decided to liven things up for them a little bit, as if it had decided their lives were dull, because the waves started to swirl and rose to almost 40 feet. One wave in particular hit the boat with such force that it knocked everyone off balance and almost capsized the ship, again.

Cursing her frozen mind, Annabeth looked desperately around that she could use to help stabilize the boat, when Percy caught her eye, well more accurately, the glowing around him did. Apparently when the storm had begun to worsen, Percy had called upon his own core and will to calm the waters, while improving the water condition somewhat so the ship wasn't threatening to turn on its side anymore, the energy that he had used, projected a sea-green glow around him. Annabeth could see the lines of perspiration beginning to form on his forehead though, and she knew that he was fighting for control with Oceanus, and that if he broke concentration, the results would be disastrous.

Annabeth and the rest of the Seven were desperately wishing that they could help because they knew that Percy didn't have a lot of energy at the moment to begin with, when right in front, of her a blob of water appears out of nowhere and begins to take the shape of a middle-aged man.

Sparing a quick glance sky-ward, Annabeth saw that Oceanus was no longer standing near Scylla, who remained at the edge of cliff, eagerly awaiting the possibility to pluck everyone off the ship and to their death.

"I'm surprised young half-bloods that you've survived this far, not everyone could survive the obstacles Mother Earth has sent your way. Don't get me wrong though, I am very pleased that you have made it to me, I was so hoping that I would be the one to get to kill you all, well kill five, and capture two.

"Oh, and son of Poseidon? I would give up now, even if I wasn't here, you would have minimal control over the sea, for you are entering the Mediterranean, which does not like to be restrained. You won't have to worry about that though, because I'm not leaving until you lot are finished, so there is no way you are gaining access to the Mediterranean.

"In fact, I don't even have to dirty my hands to destroy you demigods, my friends, Scylla and Charybdis are more than willing to do that for me. You see, they have a bone to pick with you, son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena, because you were amongst the group that previous defeated them, and they are not ones to let bygones be bygones. And for me, I just want one of you to perish, and that is the son of the upstart god that pushed me out of my own realm," Oceanus ranted.

Just as the ocean titan finished threatening them, the side-railing five feet away from Leo was suddenly torn off its hinges and lifted in the sky by two very long tentacles. Leo dove to the side to prevent being grabbed himself, giving everyone time to quickly look upwards to witness the railing being devoured by Scylla, who looked disappointed that she hadn't gotten a person.

Not giving herself a second to think about the consequences, Annabeth bellows out the first plan that comes into her mind, not caring that Oceanus could most likely hear her.

"Jason, if anyone is picked up by Scylla, fly up and retrieve them before they are eaten. Also, if you could send a lightning strike towards any enemy that would be great, although I know how hard it is to control the weather right now. Frank, help him Jason with the retrieving picked-up people thing, by transforming into a bird of some kind.

"Next, Hazel, do what you can to confuse the enemy with the mist, but if you are unable to do, try to summon some diamonds to use as weapons, anything helps. Piper, try to charm-speak Charybdis and Scylla into letting kidnapped people go, or just to let us pass without conflict.

"Finally, Percy, the key-factor here, is for you to keep control of the sea the best you can, and try to propel us forward. The goal right now is to just enter the Mediterranean, through any means necessary," ordered Annabeth, sounding scarily like a drill-sergeant.

Unfortunately, Oceanus did overhear her orders, and judging by his reaction, he was not pleased, not at all. For what his reaction was to order the waves to twist around and leap up onto the boat, exactly where Percy was standing. Although Percy was able to leap out of the way before he was swept out to sea, he was forced to break his concentration, which had already been waning.

Taking advantage of this, Oceanus immediately seized control of the water. Making a fist with his hand, Annabeth saw, the waves responded to his apparent command by rising into an almost solid wall of water, tilting the Argo II 90 degrees on its side, forcing everyone on board to desperately cling to random pieces of furniture to remain on the boat.

Annabeth had grabbed a door handle to prevent herself from falling, and the strength it was taking to hold on was taking a heavy toll on her already worn out muscles. Taking a risk, she glanced behind her to where Oceanus was floating above the water, and saw him whirling his finger, and while that confused her at first, Annabeth quickly learned that that particular command made the Argo II spin uncontrollably, once again.

"We are going to capsize and drown!" frantically shouted Jason.

Trying to force calmness in her panic-seized mind, Annabeth shouted back, "Jason, Frank, can you fly all of us out?"

"No, we aren't strong enough to fly a ship, or even five people all at once. Plus, even if we could, which we can't, Oceanus or Scylla would pluck us right out of the air before we could get anywhere," responded Frank.

Just as Oceanus clenched his fist, ordering the waves to crash upon them, Annabeth lost her grip on her door handle and was starting to free-fall, when her left hand was suddenly seized in mid-air.

While the jolt nearly dislocated her shoulder, Annabeth had never felt more joy looking up in the beautiful sea-green eyes of her Seaweed Brain. Realizing that he had caught her with his broken arm, Annabeth looked up with worry to see while Percy's face was lased with pain, love still shown there above all.

"Don't worry about me, Wise Girl, I told you that I would never let you go, and I meant it."

However before Annabeth could respond with telling him just how much she loved him, the 500 gallon wave suddenly appeared above them, seconds away from crashing upon them.

At the last moment, though Percy thrust both his legs upward in an awkward motion that looked down-right unpleasant, but apparently did the trick that he wanted, because right before it crushed them all, the wave diverted into a thousand different directions. Regrettably, the force of the wave was still there, for while they weren't all flattened to pancakes, the ship was still cracked to pieces. Because of the hundreds of leaks appearing, the boat begins to capsize anyway, aided by Oceanus.

"Jason, Frank, get Leo, Hazel, and Piper, and fly them to me! Quick!" frantically commanded Percy, who was clearly trying to think through the pain and exhaustion that were threatening to take over his mind.

From wherever they were, Jason and Frank immediately took the initiative and didn't waste a moment in either transforming into a hawk or summoning the winds to him. Just as another wave was about to crash into them again, Frank arrived with Hazel clutched in his beak, and Jason with Piper and Leo clinging for dear life to him.

The minute they were within leaping distance, Percy pushed off from his handhold of a random railing, still clutching Annabeth's hand, to where the five were flying toward them, and in mid-air he created an air bubble around them, shielding them from the impact of the wave.

Taking a moment to calm her pounding heart, which seemed to be trying to escape from her chest, Annabeth looked closely at Percy for the first time since this whole ordeal began, and was terrified with what she observed. His eyelids were starting to flutter close again, he was deathly pale, and his broken arm seemed to have been injured even worse since it stuck out in the complete opposite direction that it was supposed to.

Before she could do any further analysis though, they suddenly heard a roar of laughter from Oceanus, something nobody was expecting. Seconds later, Oceanus' laughter was joined by shouts of glee from Charybdis and Scylla, which sounded like nails being run down a chalkboard.

In unison the Seven, even Percy who was half-conscious, looked up to something that froze their blood in place. Apparently the air bubble had caught in Charybdis' whirlpool, and they were now being sucked into the giant captivity of her mouth at 70 mph. When they looked up, they saw the filthy rubber braces filled with debris of previous ships and various articles of clothing belonging to now-dead sailors, and they were forced to realize the terrifying truth. They were going to be eaten alive.

**Disclaimer:**

**Annabeth: "I'm beginning to see Percy's and Jason's points, you are evil."**

**Me: "I'm not evil, I just have a dark writing style."**

**Annabeth: "Well why can't you keep my boyfriend and I out of your 'dark writing style'?"**

**Me: "Where's the fun in that?"**

**Annabeth: "You know Rick would never do this to us."**

**Me: "I doubt it, but if that's the case then I guess the main published story will be nice to you guys, my Fan Fiction, however, will not be, sorry."**


	5. Chapter 5- Jason

**Author's Note: Hello everyone again, sorry for the day wait for this chapter. Can you guys believe though that Blood of Olympus comes out in a week? Then after that…. No more Percy Jackson, that is so sad! **** Also, fair warning, in this chapter, there are some graphic scenes, so if you are squeamish you may want to skim over them. Anyway, here are the responses to the reviews that I keep meaning to do.**

**Review Responses:**

_**Joak-24**_**: I'm happy that you like this story, I'm going to be using both new and old monsters in this story, because I figure they haven't faced all the monsters around, but since the Doors of Death were open for awhile, it gave some of the old monsters a chance to escape.**

_**Person:**_** Welcome to the world of Fan-Fiction! I'm flattered that you chose my story to be one of the first you read, and I'm sure your writing is just as good, probably better than mine, I would love to read some of your stories sometime if you want. For the updating two/three times a day, I will try my best to update as fast as I can, but I am juggling school and extra-curriculars at the same time, so please forgive me if I am a little bit slow on the updates, I promise they will come!**

_**AWESOME STORY: **_**I'm happy that you like my story so much that you can't wait for the next chapter, I hope chapter 3 (and 4, and this one) is what you were hoping for!**

_**FF rox: **_**I'm happy that you like my story, and I didn't realize before that my reviews weren't visible to all, so I fixed that for you, I hope you can view them all now.**

_**Sophia**_**: I'm thrilled that you're getting into my story and investing your time in reading it. Again, my story will have a mix of both old and new monsters to make it that much more interesting.**

_**Sophhascoconuts: **_**You have no idea how much it means to me for you to say that my story is one of the best BoO Fan-Fictions out there, especially since people have had almost a year to post them. Thank you so much!**

_**Cameron Grant: **_**I didn't realize before that I was switching back and forth between past and present tense, but looking back on my writing, I realize you're right. So from now, I will try to stick with present tense, thanks for the suggestion! Be sure to tell me please if I was consistent in this chapter! **

Chapter 5- Jason POV

Staring at the debris-filled rubber braces of Charybdis was definitely not the highlight of Jason's day. Just once really, he wished that they would be given a day off, just one, but no since they rescued Annabeth and Percy from Tartarus, it was almost non-stop monster attacks sent by Gaea in her hopes of slowing them down. Those attacks had become so frequent, that the Seven had stopped all coming out to fight and normally just three or four people came to battle, while the others rested or ate, or in Leo's case, piloted the ship.

Whenever it was Jason's turn to rest, and some of the others were fighting, he could always hear them where he was below-deck. During those occurrences, he spent his resting-period wishing that he could help, he just always felt so useless below-deck, feeling like he couldn't do anything to help his friends. This was exactly how Jason was feeling right then, watching Percy struggle to not only hold onto consciousness but also to guide their little man-made air bubble, again courtesy of Percy, away from Charybdis' giant carnivorous mouth.

Since they were underwater, Jason knew he couldn't manipulate the winds or help in any other way with his powers, but he almost got ready to try, no matter how hopeless it was. That was his plan that is, before he saw what Percy managed to do before he completely passed out from either pain or exhaustion, or both.

The son of Poseidon had managed to freeze the water in front of them to a solid ice wall, and lower the water temperature enough in Charybdis' mouth for the water there to turn into ice crystals, the ones that you normally see in caves. Jason was just about to start cheering at the thought of being saved of being consumed alive, when he the air bubble slammed into the ice wall.

Jason was very glad that Percy's powers allowed him to make a strong enough air bubble so it didn't pop on impact, preventing all of them from being crushed. However, it seemed like Percy's abilities didn't permit him to completely make a solid wall of ice, because when the air bubble collided with it, it shattered into a million pieces, allowing the bubble to continue to get pulled towards Charybdis' mouth.

The fear of being eaten whole returned to Jason's mind in full-force, and he, along with the other five demigods, with Percy remaining unconscious, started screaming their heads off in pure terror. Because Jason had squeeze his eyes shut so he didn't have to witness the throat of Charybdis, he missed what exactly happened next.

All Jason knew was that one moment he was about to be eaten alive and the next, the bubble was being tossed to the side with so much force, that he lost his balance and slammed into the person next to him, who just happened to be Leo, banging his forehead on Leo's tool belt.

Blinking back the stars from his vision, Jason saw that something had blasted them at least a mile to the side, so they were completely out of both Charybdis and Scylla's reach, and had actually been pushed through the two cliffs, so they had now officially entered the Mediterranean.

However, just because they were out of the reach between the two guardians of the Sea of Monsters (and now Mediterranean), didn't mean they were out of sight-range. Just as this day, or really week, heck it was truly this entire year, couldn't possibly get any stranger, the world proved him wrong by a 50-foot sea-green trident flying out of the sea all of a sudden, and before anyone could react, it flew at least 90 mph at Charybdis, where it then stabbed her giant throat.

No one so much as blinked for a solid two minutes as they watched Charybdis howl in agony, where after she bled out what seemed to be her entire body's worth of ichor, she slowly crumbled to golden monster dust, where it immediately scattered in the water.

Not even a heartbeat later, Jason heard a furious roar that came from what seemed to be the water right next to the left of the bubble. What started as a few miniature bubbles rising to the surface, turned into a ginormous whirlpool in about 20.7 seconds flat, which in turn produced a positively manic god, who even if he didn't know him from mythology classes, Jason would know him anyway because of how much his son looked like him. Because before the air bubble carrying the Seven demigods of the Second Great Prophecy, was Lord Poseidon, Percy's father.

Before anyone could do or say something, like bow in respect to prevent being speared to death too by that trident, Poseidon snapped his fingers, almost impatiently like someone should have already done it, and right beneath the cliff where Scylla was currently cowering in terror, appeared a giant whirlpool-ish tunnel, that radiated fear. Jason immediately knew without a doubt that that tunnel lead to Tartarus and he would rather be dead than go down it.

Knowing that Poseidon had meant that sentence for Scylla, Jason almost instinctively raised his arms, manipulating the wind currents so they pushed Scylla off her cliff where she fell 200 feet into the tunnel, that immediately sealed itself once she entered.

Smiling a sinister smile that Jason never wanted to see again, Poseidon closed his eyes in concentration, and a hurricane even greater than the one Oceanus had created, instantly formed. The hurricane was of such magnitude that it altered the position of every single water molecule, either in the air or the sea, within a 50-mile radius. Miraculously though, the hurricane seemed to completely avoid the air bubble that contained the demigods, who looked like they were all about to have a completely breakdown from overwrought nerves, so the area around them was completely peaceful.

"Oceanus, you piece of barnacle scum! How dare you attack my son, or even any demigod! I told Zeus it was foolish to let you off with just your promise that you would always be on our side from now on, I knew you would betray us for an offer that profited you better!

"You are so fortunate that I am not yet at full form, or I would blast you to nothingness my self. Seeing though that I am still recovering from my split personalities, I will have to settle with looking forward to my revenge later. However, you can start paying for your treachery now by allowing the demigods to return to their ship without further conflict !" Lord Poseidon bellowed to the titan of the ocean, who looked shocked that he hadn't emerged from this battle victorious, but his features quickly morphed into guilt and resignation.

"You win this one, oh thief of my ocean, but mark my words Poseidon, you puny Olympians won't win this war, Mother Earth will crush you into oblivion! I will leave quietly, even I can admit defeat, and while the half bloods' ship is still intact, barely, it is badly damaged," Oceanus consented.

Jason had previously thought that Oceanus had more barnacles in his head than brains, but he was quickly proven wrong when the water titan dissolved into millions of water particles, as they were processing the knowledge that the Argo II was once again damaged and in need of repairs. No one was taking this news worse than Leo though, who actually started sobbing and his hair was starting to smoke in his agitation, at the thought of his beautiful ship being impaired yet again.

As he dutifully rubbed his friend's back, Jason spared a glance over to where the god of the seas was currently floating in the ocean, looking torn between being pleased that he drove away the enemies, frustrated that Oceanus got away, and worried for his son. As Jason's mind remembered Percy, he quickly turned to the son of Poseidon, and saw him in even worse state than before.

Before he could get a good look though, the Seven were abruptly at the bottom of the sea with a giant air dome covering about 300 feet upwards, and a two-mile radius in all other directions, except downwards of course.

Jason recognized that it was very similar to Percy's air bubble, just a tad bit bigger and stronger, so it must have been created by the only person in the world who had stronger water powers than Percy, Poseidon himself, who looked very smug at the moment that he had thought to cater to the needs of the demigods, such as their need for air. Although, Jason did have to admit that he did a pretty good job at being considerate when he created miniature chairs made of yellowish-green seaweed and pinkish-purple coral, smoothed out to form proper seating arrangements.

As everyone else was admiring the dome and furniture, except Leo who looked like he was trying to set his hand on fire but found that the water prohibited that, even with them being in an air-dome, Jason took this time to finally get a good luck at the sea god's son, who was currently being slapped by a frantic daughter of Athena, who was becoming more and more panicked that her boyfriend didn't even show any signs of response or consciousness.

Percy's complexion used to be very tan, thanks to all the time he spent on the beach and training in the sun, but now it was paler than Nico's from his time in Tartarus and from pain and the drain on his powers.

There were also giant black bags under his eyes so it looked like he two black eyes, or was just recovering from a broken nose. What used to be bulging muscles now were skinny and brittle arms and legs, and the fat and muscle on Percy's stomach had disappeared. Jason privately thought in his head that he had seen rails fatter than Percy. The skin over his semi-relaxed face (as relaxed as it could be under the circumstances) was stretched tightly, another sign of malnourishment.

What was most concerning though, was not even the odd angle that Percy's arm was residing in, although that certainly sickening with it pointing completely backwards at the elbow and twisted to the side so pale-white bone was sticking out from a giant cut on the fleshy part of his arm that was leaking blood at what should be an impossible speed. No, what caused Jason to gasp in shock and fright, was the wheezing Percy's breaths caused, how he sounded like he was a 90-year-old-man with both emphysema and asthma and had a severe smoking addiction. With the way Percy was currently breathing, he sounded like any breath was going to be his last.

Jason's gasp of shock apparently brought Poseidon out of his sense of self-accomplishment, because before he knew it, the sea god was right beside him, trying to take his son out of Annabeth's arms. While Annabeth looked like she desperately wanted to cling to her boyfriend's unconscious body, one look at Jason's eyes, proved to her that Poseidon was just going to help by examining and hopefully healing Percy.

While Poseidon looks like he is about to have a heart-attack from the way he is looking at his son, he immediately set to work, starting by removing Percy's shirt to hopefully see what was ailing his lungs. What was revealed saw set off a unison cry of surprise and horror from the group of demigods and god.

Percy's entire chest was a collection of welts that looked like third-degree burns, and the skin that wasn't bleeding or scabbed over, was a nauseatingly shade of green. To anyone observing the scene, including Jason himself, it would appear that Percy Jackson was living his last few minutes of life.

**Disclaimer:**

**Percy "Why is it always me that you make almost die?"**

**Me: "Do you want me to hurt the others, perhaps Annabeth?"**

**Percy: "No, don't you dare touch my Wise Girl! If you lay a hand on her head, then I will get Rick to destroy your story."**

**Me: "Good luck, Rick owns the entire original storyline, but I can still write Fan Fiction, and I can write what I want in my own story."**

**Percy: "Fine, can you just not kill me?"**

**Me: "I'll consider it."**


	6. Chapter 6- Nico

**Author's Note: Hello again, can you guys believe that The Blood of Olympus is coming out in 4 days?! I am widely anticipating and at the same time, dreading it; eagerly awaiting it because I want to know what happens, but fearing it because it's the last Percy Jackson book! Anyway, I have planned out the schedule for this Fan-Fiction, and give or take a couple days, I should be finished on November 1****st****, and my policy is that I won't stop writing a story until it is complete unless people want me to stop (with a reason why). Now before we get onto the story, and Nico's first POV, here are the review responses:**

**Review Responses:**

_**PerceusSeaweedBrainJackson: **_**While I am flattered that you took the time to review, I really hope that you don't actually want to report me if I kill Percy. If the reason why you say that is because you are confused on why I write what I do, feel free to message me and I'll try to explain within the best of my abilities, but also when I get to the point in the story when all will be clear, I will explain my reasoning in either the author's note or the disclaimer. Anyway though, thanks again for leaving a review!**

Chapter 6- Nico POV

Abruptly regaining consciousness after witnessing a terrifying scenario in a dream is not what Nico would call pleasant, and that's coming from him. Although, he knew that the Seven were in a much worse position than he was, for they had just fought against Oceanus, Charybdis, and Scylla all at once, even if it had been Poseidon doing most of the battling, and the Seven basically just trying to survive, which is something every demigod has perfected over the years.

It was almost a right of passage, you weren't considered a 'newbie' anymore once you stopped being amazed at everything you saw, only fought when necessary, and kept your emotions in check, allowing nothing to faze you. Once you achieved that, you were considered a professional demigod.

According to that theory, Nico thought to himself, he would be considered a master at the age of 13, after he was told of the existence of the Roman Camp but was forbidden to say anything by his father, for fear of death-by-Underworld-grounding. However, Nico was thinking in a wistful tone, that just because it appeared for you to have no emotions, didn't mean that they actually disappeared, something he knew better than anyone.

If he had succeeded in banishing all of his emotions, he wouldn't be feeling an agonizing pain in his chest right then, inflicted by no exterior wound, only heartbreak. Nico had spent his entire life wishing that people would just accept him for who he was, on both counts of being gay and of being a son of Hades, but it was extremely difficult when he had been born in the 1930's, a prime time of prejudice, so much that it had been drilled into his head that it was unacceptable to not be straight. As it was, it took him a long time to come to terms of his sexuality with himself.

Even though, Nico had relatively accepted himself, he just wished that his first real crush didn't have to be on someone who saw him as a little brother and was hopelessly in love with another person, a girl to make it worse. That was part of the reason why he was so bitter towards Percy when he was going on the quest through the labyrinth, even he could see how much Percy and Annabeth loved each other, no matter how many times they at vehemently denied it then.

While Nico had told Jason after that awful confrontation with Cupid that he was over his crush on Percy, the truth was that he really wasn't. True, the crush had faded a little bit over time, but that didn't stop his heart shattering every time he saw Annabeth kissing Percy.

Thinking such thoughts was terrible for his mood, he had started to attract shadows to him again, a clear sign of agitation, so he quickly tried to change his train of thought to the first thing that popped into his depressing mind, which was unfortunately the dream that he had just experienced after he passed out after a particularly long-distance travel right after an equally exhausting jump and the battle with the hellhounds and dracaena.

It wasn't as common anymore for him to completely pass out after shadow-travel as it had been when he was first learning the ability, but whenever it did occur, he normally had demigod prophetic dreams where he witness important events occurring somewhere else in the world (or in the past/future).

However, he noticed that something had occurred in this dream that hadn't been there in others, this time, his death-related powers were still present, meaning he could still see people's life-sources and auras around them, and could see if they were close to death or not. Recollecting it now, when he had seen Percy shielding his friends from the impending demolishing wave and later creating the lifesaving air-bubble, he had heard an intense buzzing in his ears, which he normally heard when someone very close to him emotionally died or was on death's door.

Narrowing his eyes in thought, Nico's mind quickly lit up with the realization of that he had been able to see all of the Seven's life auras in the dream, including Percy's sea-green one, that had been seconds from flickering out and vanishing forever.

_Wham!_

Accidentally slamming his head into a tree by carelessly walking into it, Nico yelped in surprise, pulling himself out of his death-filled thoughts. Grumbling as he rubbed at his rapidly-forming bump on his forehead, Nico looked over to his side to see that Reyna and Coach Hedge were in a clearing not even half a mile in the distance, sleeping back-to-back.

Smirking over the fact that those two, even in sleep, looked ready to attack anything that seemed amiss, Nico walked over to where the statue had landed, plopping himself down to guard it himself, something he hadn't done this entire trip, because he had either been unconscious or shadow-travelling.

While he had intended to keep his senses sharp and alert, fatigue quickly settled in, so he settled into a distracted stupor of thoughts and daydreams.

Returning to his previous mindset, Nico realized that even though Percy had been the only one in danger of perishing, he had been to see the rest of the Seven's auras. Recalling what he had seen, Nico apprehended that Annabeth's was stormy-grey, the color of her eyes, Jason's was sky-blue, Piper's was light-pink, Leo's was fire-red, Frank's was purple, the color of a Camp Jupiter t-shirt and praetor toga, and finally, his sister's was a warm chocolate brown.

Taking a few minutes to ponder what each color meant, Nico comprehended with a rush of adrenaline, that now he would be able to sense how his friends were, yes they were his friends no matter how annoying they could be, especially Jason and Leo, and if anyone was in the process of dying.

However, before Nico could take the chance to reflect upon his newly discovered ability and what it meant, the shadows suddenly pulled themselves from the trees to form an anonymous shape. Not taking any risks, Nico reflexively drew his Stygian Iron sword from its sheath.

On edge from his last experience of not being prepared during a surprise-attack, Nico was about to take the initiative and go on the offensive, when the shadows suddenly took a definitive shape. Within moments, where the shadows had previous been, now stood a tall figure in black robes, a skeleton crown on his oily head, and who appeared to be an older version of Nico himself, if he decided to live underground for 500 years and listen to his mother-in-law complain at him the entire time. Nico should have known that the only one who would command the shadows so obviously like that would be his father, the Greek god of the Underworld, Hades.

Instead of kneeling out of respect, which was custom for greeting gods because they were known for being very temperamental and could throw a fit, if they thought they were being disrespected, Nico just twisted his face into a scowl, letting his father know exactly how he felt about him appearing out of nowhere.

Nico could see that his father was completely caught off guard by his response, but he knew it wasn't because of his disrespect. No, it was because Hades never thought that he would learn to stand up for himself.

"Nico, son, I see you are looking well and have recovered from your, err, unfortunate experience?" Hades awkwardly tried.

"Oh, and what experience are you referring to Hades? Because as far as I'm concerned, my whole life has just been one tragic event after another, starting with being born as your son!" Nico snapped.

"Listen here, young man, you should be right grateful, not every other god would take time out of his busy schedule to help-" Hades started to scold, but was quickly interrupted by his irate teenage son.

"You never helped me! I was stuck in that horrible pit and then that awful suffocating jar being put on display for two giants, and where were you? I have no clue, but it wasn't anywhere near me! Now, _Dad_, why are you here? Percy, Piper, and Jason rescued me from the jar over a week ago, if you were here to check-up on my well-being, you would have done it before now," Nico demanded.

Nico had expected his father to either try to incinerate him or to just disappear into the shadows, but he never expected to see the god of the Underworld's midnight-black eyes, soften in gentleness, even if it was just a fraction and wouldn't be noticeable to any other person, demigod, deity, monster, or mortal.

"Son, I know I haven't been the greatest father, but you know that no god is, just ask any of your demigod umm acquaintances. But you have to believe, I truly do care, and want to know how you're doing, I'm just not always good at showing my sentimental side, something I understand that I passed along to you. Now though, it is because I care about you, that I have to warn you about a rapidly approaching event.

"Unfortunately, I can't tell you the whole thing, our most ancient laws forbid it, but I can say this, don't ever falter in your loyalty to me or any of the other Olympians, no matter what happens. Do you understand?" Hades cautioned.

"What in Gaea are you talking about?"

It was obvious that Hades was extremely uncomfortable and on-edge, but Nico didn't care, his father had come to him in the first place after all, and he wanted to know what the heck was going on, and why his father had just told him not to betray Olympus, as if he would ever consider doing that.

"Nico, please just take my word on this."

"Father, no! Don't you come to me, and expect me to accept your vague warnings, I want an explanation for once!"

"Fine, have it your way! Nico, son, I know."

Anyone else's face would have morphed into one of confusion, but not Nico's, his transformed into one of panic and pure terror. A lot of things could be implied by that one sentence his father had just spoken, but Nico immediately knew what he meant, and barely manages to choke out,

"What do you know? You're going to have to be more specific than that, or has your split-personalities left you forgetful?" Nico weakly denied.

"Don't play stupid, you know exactly what I mean. And what I want to tell you is that, Poseidon's brat has a lot of enemies, much more than a typical half-blood, and that is extremely dangerous for a demigod as powerful as he is, as reluctant as I am to admit it.

"So son, since you want to continue to play this futile game of denial, I will spell it out for you. I know that you have a crush on Percy Jackson. But I came here to tell you that your attraction doesn't matter, I'm aware of how cruel that sounds, but you must always do what's right and thinking of the greater good, even if that means sacrificing things that you love."

While Hades had actually been trying his best to sound caring and compassionate while delivering this advice, Nico didn't care, all he saw was the world tinged in a volatile red.

"Forget it, I don't care about the greater good, I won't sacrifice Percy! He's the one who saved me from the manticore when I was ten, from the labyrinth when I was eleven, rescued me from the giants' torture, and he was and is the only one who truly accepts me as me, and isn't scared of me because I'm your son! What have _you_ done for me, except tell me that you wish that Bianca is better?! You know what, just go! I hate you, and wish that I didn't have to support the stupid Olympians because they are related to you! I will never let Percy die if I have something to say about it!" Nico hysterically declared.

"Ok son, just remember don't let your loyalties falter, the fate of the world depends on it," cryptically cautioned Hades, starting to disappear into the shadows once again.

Before his father completely disappeared though, Nico heard him shout one final warning over the sound of his own sobs,

"Beware! I have lost control over the spirits and monsters of the Underworld before the Doors were closed while I was incapacitated!"

Not even sparing his father's latest warning a thought, Nico's knees suddenly gave out, and he knelt over in the grass, sobbing over the idea that Percy very well could die, why else would his father warn him about that. But he was actually mostly upset over the fact that everyone probably was aware of his sexuality if his father, who lived in the Underworld and was normally 200 years behind the latest gossip, knew!

This in the exact position, Reyna found him in some time later, curled up in a ball and bawling his eyes out, letting go of emotions that he had kept bottled since Bianca's death. Nico felt the daughter of Bellona kneel next to him and start rubbing his back in what was probably meant to be a soothing gesture, but he was too wrapped up in his own mind to tell her off or even to really care.

After what seemed like two solid hours of non-stop sobbing, Nico finally got control of himself, and was able to reduce his weeping to sniffles, then did Reyna pull away and face him.

"Do you want to talk about?" the Roman praetor gently asked.

"Absolutely not! Now leave me alone!"

A couple hours of ago, his rudeness may have worked in dissuading the Roman, but after a solid block of time of crying, Nico figured that he didn't look nearly as intimidating as he normally did, but his irritation level did rise when Reyna started chuckling, like he had just shared with her a hilarious joke.

"Nico, two things. One, I can sense your outburst of emotions is because of love, something I know all too well about, and two, talking really can help, again I know on a personal level."

"Fine, I know that look on your face, and you're not going to take no for an answer, I've seen it enough in the mirror. My father just recently visited and to make a long story short, he told me that no matter what happens, even if the person I love dies, I always have to remain faithful to Olympus."

"Your father definitely shouldn't have put it like that, that was probably the most insensitive way to tell you. Nico, who do you love though that the thought of their death would cause this strong of an emotional reaction from you?"

Taking a deep breath, Nico mentally prepared himself for revealing the secret he had kept under lock-and-key his entire life,

"Percy, only demigod son of Poseidon."

Nico had thought for sure that Reyna would pull away in disgust when he revealed that he a crush on a boy, but she managed to surprise him even more by giving him a small accepting smile.

"Nico, it's ok, I understand, I'm not going to cringe away from you like you've got some horrid disease, just because you're gay. And for having a crush on Percy, I get that more than anyone, you know I too am attracted to him, and the worst part for me is, that he knows it and even had the nerve to let me down in the most gentleman-like way. So believe me Nico, I know what it's like to not be liked back."

Opening his mouth to respond, Nico was suddenly interrupted by the shadows once again pulling themselves together. But unlike last time, they only had about two milliseconds before they revealed about a dozen Keres and un-dead skeletons, all ready to attack.

**Disclaimer:**

**This disclaimer is currently unavailable for Nico di Angelo is currently strangling sheltie26. Let it be known that Rick Riordan owns all rights and privileges pertaining to the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Heroes of Olympus.**


	7. Chapter 7- Annabeth

** Author's Note: I apologize once again for making you guys wait this long before updating, to be honest, my only excuse for not updating Friday was that I was reading. In fact, I was reading so much I finished **_**The Serpent's Shadow, The Son of Sobek, and The Staff of Serapis**_** all in one day, and now I am actually rereading **_**The Lightning Thief**_**! But yesterday, my brother was vising home from college, so I had to spend time with him. I will, however hopefully update again today, although I'm not sure, because I have to practice my violin in preparation for a graded solo performance in front of my entire Orchestra tomorrow, finish my English essay, read some of **_**Life of **_**Pi for English, and make an Apple Crisp for my family. So yeah, I am busy, but I'm trying to make as much time as I can to write, mainly for you guys but also so I can read the **_**Blood of Olympus**_** as soon as possible, I even pre-ordered a hardcover copy so it should be delivered very soon after the release. Anyway, the other day, I was reflecting on my writing style the other day and like many writers, I listen to music while writing, and I realized that the song I'm listening to normally reflects the style of my writing for the chapter. So to warn you guys on depressing and/or violent chapters, before the review responses, I will tell you guys my 'Song of the Chapter'. Finally, one last thing, this chapter is much shorter than normal because I had to alter my original plan where the demigods all shared their stories with each other, because it was way too long, and I figured you guys already know the story, well hopefully you do, so I changed the chapter to make it much shorter, hope you guys like it!**

_**Song of the Chapter: Second Chance **_**by Shinedown**

_**Response Reviews:**_

_**Guest: **_**I'm pleased that you think my story is interesting! Also, I would love to hear your ideas sometime!**

_**Guest**_**: I'm thrilled that you think my story is awesome, thanks for the review!**

_**PerceusSeaweedBrainJackson:**_** I'm very glad to hear that you wouldn't actually report my (or any) Fan-Fiction. As for the theory of Percy's death causing Annabeth to die, I don't want to give anything away, but know that I have this all extensively planned/thought out, and I'm fairly certain I've covered all my bases on the chain reactions. I know I'm being very cryptic, but all will be revealed in time! You are definitely right on one thing though, Percy and Annabeth are very tough characters, and it certainly would take a lot to break/kill them.**

Chapter 7- Annabeth POV

Annabeth nearly passed out when she saw the welts covering her boyfriend's chest, made worse by the greenish skin surrounding them. The shock it caused her wasn't even caused by the appearance of the gruesome wounds, as horrifying as they were, no her shock was caused by the fact that Percy had kept that from her, or really been able to. She knew that he had been in a lot more pain than she since they had gotten back from Tartarus, but she never would have guessed that this was the reason, she didn't even know what had hurt her Seaweed Brain, and that's what angered her the most.

Pulling her mind out of its pondering, Annabeth looked down to witness Poseidon frantically waving his hands, which were glowing a bluish-green light, over his son's unresponsive form. It took several moments for the spell to be completed, but after it was finished, Annabeth quickly noticed that the welts on Percy's chest were half-way closed, still a long way from being healed but still much-improved, but the previous sickly-green tinted skin had returned to normal, or at least to the ghostly complexion the rest of his body was. Unfortunately, Percy's right arm was still pointed at a sickening angle, completely backwards, and was so swollen that it barely looked like an arm anymore, more like a sausage, both in color and width, it was that swollen.

"That arm of his is going to need more care than I can give him at the moment with a quick healing spell. I will need to spend more time with him later to be able to start to repair it, the bones are broken in multiple places and some of the muscles are torn, and even then, he will need to be extremely cautious with it after that," explained Poseidon, when he noticed all the quizzical looks being sent his way, when the Seven noticed the state of Percy's arm.

Hearing that, Annabeth's heart went into immediate over-drive because she recognized that that was Percy's sword arm that was critically injured, and with his luck, he didn't have the time to be extremely cautious to allow it to heal. Worse, if he tried to push himself too far with his arm in that condition, it could end of locking and shaking, allowing a monster to deliver a fatal-blow. Annabeth was so wrapped up in her anxiety, that she almost missed Poseidon really noticing three of the Seven for the first time, or to be more specific Jason, Hazel, and Frank, the Romans of the Quest, causing him to briefly switch to the form of Neptune before changing back to Poseidon.

"I am very pleased that you Seven, both Greek and Roman, are getting along reasonably well, meaning that the pain I felt on behalf of Hera's idiotic plan wasn't completely pointless," Poseidon stated with a small smile to show that he genuine with his words, before turning to Jason, unexpectantly.

"Young son of Jupiter, while your father may be a fool the majority of the time, no offense, you should know that he is very worried about you, but is even more proud."

"Now demigods of the Second Great Prophecy, you must know that Gaea has almost risen from her millennia long sleep, and you are almost out of time. Also, the Earth Goddess is particularly interested in using and then destroying Percy, mostly due to her hatred of his conquering of her minions and how powerful he is, and she will most likely be sending monsters he's faced in the past, not to give him an advantage. She is more likely doing this to give the monsters an advantage because they now know what his strengths and weaknesses are, and they have a fierce hatred and a desire for revenge after being defeated. We don't have enough time for everyone to share his or her stories, though I wish we did, but I think we do have enough time for two people to share something very important with you guys, if they are up to it," after that Poseidon gave a pointed look to Percy and Annabeth, and Annabeth realized that he wanted them to tell the others what happened in Tartarus.

With a sigh and look of sadness but acceptance exchanged with Percy, who was still lying on her lap, she addressed everyone, telling them, "While I would preferably wait a little longer before divulging this, I can see the merits in telling you guys what happened to us in Tartarus, and by sharing, it could help us heal."

"After Percy had to let go of his ledge after shouting to Nico to lead you guys to the House of Hades," started Annabeth, "we fell for a _really_ long time. We landed not on the ground, but in the river Cocytus, the river of lamentation where it makes you think very depressing and hopeless thoughts, but Percy was able to manipulate the water to cushion our fall.

"Once we swam to shore, we discovered that the ground was made of broken glass and that the air was poison, and we would die if we didn't get to and drink from the Phlegathon, which has healing properties that allow you to survive Tartarus. We made our way there, and drank from it, so we were able to survive at least from the poisonous air.

"After that, we ran into some Empousa, and their ring-leader Kelli, who I killed back when we were 14, attacked us. They were going to kill us, when a titan came and demolished them all. The titan's name was Bob, previously Iapetus but he had lost his memory a couple years ago when Percy pushed him into the River Lethe when they were battling.

"Bob didn't remember us, but previously Percy and I had been talking and his name came up, and he somehow heard, and jumped into Tartarus to help us, because Nico had put in a good word with him when he visited, that really is a long story. After that, we continued on our way where we came across a statue of Hermes, that was connected to Camp Half-Blood, and I left a note to them, saying what had happened and that the statue needed to be brought there, which is how Reyna knew where to find us.

"Next, we sadly ran into some Arai, basically just a bunch of old ladies that will kill you, but if you kill them, then you get a curse from a monster that had previous cursed you while you were killing it. I got the curse of blindness from Polyphemus and the curse of loneliness from Calypso, when Percy had to leave her back when we were 14. Since I have a very vague memory of this, I'll let Percy take over for this part."

With a slight glare, Percy resumed telling the traumatic story. "I knew I couldn't leave Annabeth like that, and the Arai had unfortunately jogged Bob's memory, so he felt betrayed, not that I can blame him, and refused to help us, at first at least. Anyway, I fought off the Arai the best I could, resulting in more curses than I could count, but the one that was the most severe, was the one from Phineas, where he cursed me to die the way he did, from poisoned Gorgon's blood. So next time guys, when you're killing a monster, remember that they are probably cursing you, so my advice is to never meet any Arai.

"I was very close to dying, so I mumbled an apology to Bob and to everyone else I felt like I had wronged by not being considerate enough, like Nico and Calypso, and then I must have blacked out. When I came to, I saw that Bob, bless him, decided to help us again and blasted the Arai, and he healed Annabeth from her curses, and he did try to heal me, but only succeeded in slowing down the poison. Now I kind of fell into a fevered delirious state, so I don't remember what happened next, so back to you Annabeth!" joked Percy.

Rolling her eyes at her Seaweed Brain's antics, Annabeth once again picked up the story. "Seeing Percy dying was unbearable, so I demanded Bob to do something to heal him, even though he had already tried. While he couldn't, he did know someone who could, so we started towards there. Oh by the way, we also had Polybotes chasing us the entire time, although he never did catch us.

"The person turned out to be the only friendly giant there is, Damasen, the bane of Ares. He was able to heal Percy and I tried to convince him to come with us, but he wouldn't, so we had to leave because Polybotes was approaching once again.

"Now I would give this part to Percy again, but I get the feeling he probably really doesn't want to talk about it, but you guys do have to know what the new power he discovered is. To be able to cross into Nyx's realm, we had to get the Death Mist put on us, which could only be done by Akhlys, goddess of poison and misery, who after she put the Death Mist on that made us look like zombies which is why we look so pale and unhealthy now, tried to kill us. To stop her, Percy was able to control her poisons, because they are mostly made up of water, and he kind of well, smothered her with them. So yes, Percy can control any liquid really, which means he can blood-bend." Annabeth broke off there, to give everyone a chance to digest that piece of information.

She saw that Percy had covered his face with his hands in shame, but that everyone else did look shocked, but they were mostly giving Percy looks of sympathy and understanding, not revolution and distrust.

"Percy, my son, I had hoped that you would never have to discover that power, because it is a dangerous one to have. I know you would never use it, but you can force someone to do something against their will by controlling their blood, and can even kill-" Poseidon broke off suddenly, when he saw everyone's death glares aimed at him, all of them wishing for him to shut up.

"Seaweed Brain, look around you, your friends haven't turned on you, _I_ haven't turned on you. We all know that wasn't you, and that you would never force us to do something against our wills, and I know that you will do everything in your power to prevent ever having to blood-bend or use that ability ever again. I know you Percy, and I love you," comforted Annabeth.

Her sudden public admittance of love, was enough to draw Percy out, and for his head to snap up to look at her.

"You mean that, Wise Girl? You still love me after you were terrified of me?"

"I was terrified of your power, not you, and of course I mean that."

Annabeth knew that Percy obviously loved her back, but she never would have expected her declaration to cause such a spark of happiness in his sea-green eyes, making them almost glow with pure joy.

What Annabeth wasn't prepared for, not at all, was for Percy to suddenly get on the ground, and ask the most startling question of all.

"In that case, Annabeth Chase, will you do the honor of being with me forever as my wonderful bride?"

**Me: "See I do know how to have a non-violent cliffhanger."**

**Annabeth: "But it was still a cliffhanger."**

**Me: "Ever heard the saying, you get what you get, and you don't get upset?"**

**Annabeth: "Fine, I guess I won't tell you what happens in the actual Blood of Olympus."**

**Me: "Wait no, tell me!"**

**Annabeth: "No, I don't think so, Rick gets those honors considering he owns the copyrights and all."**

**Me: "That's not fair."**

**Annabeth: "What happened to not getting upset?"**

**Me: "Touché Chase, touché."**


	8. Chapter 8- Frank

** Author's Note: Hello again, amazing right that I am updating again, right? I actually wasn't going to update today, but then I realized that since Blood of Olympus comes out tomorrow (I can't believe the last Percy Jackson book will be released in less than 24 hours), and I looked at my plan and realized that while this chapter is kind of a filler, it's pretty short, and a new POV, so I figured to give you guys this chapter a little early to give you guys something to read while you are waiting to read the actual BoO. So again, this chapter is pretty much a filler, but it is really crucial pertaining to the story line, hope you guys like it!**

_**Song of the Chapter: Jump**_** by Flo Rida**

_**Review Responses:**_

_** Emberflames7 (Guest):**_** You made by day by giving me a both honest and flattering review, so for that, I thank you a million times over. Also, and this goes for everyone, never be afraid to give me your opinion of my story, whatever it may be, as long as you give me a reason to back it up, which you did. For Percy's (and Jason's) marriage proposal, I can't say too much right now (sorry!), but the reason why I added it now, was because it makes the ending I have planned a lot smoother, so don't worry I have thought this out, and I do agree with you that they are very young, just wait until the end, and then you will know why I wrote what I did. On Poseidon staying so long, this one if my fault, I don't think made this clear before, but he has only been there for a couple hours, it just seems longer because he's been there for a couple chapters, sorry I didn't make that clear. Finally, on Percy playing such a big role right now, again, that is intentional right now, and I know we are seeing a lot of him at the beginning, but I promise you that it going to turn the rest of the Seven, in I think the next chapter, so don't worry, I know they aren't called the **_**Seven**_** for nothing, they are definitely a team, and they will all get their screen-time very soon. Thanks again though for the honest review, I really appreciate it!**

Chapter 8- Frank POV

While Frank had only known Annabeth for a short time, this was the first time he remembered her being stunned speechless. Frank couldn't honestly say that he wasn't surprised when Percy suddenly knelt on the ground and proposed to his girlfriend, even though it was obvious to even the sea-sponges that they were completely in love with each other, it still seemed very sudden to Frank, but he knew that despite how he sometimes appeared, Percy was rarely rash and he knew that the son of Poseidon had thought this through.

Although he was entirely too manly to squeal with the sweetness and romance of the situation, he didn't stop Hazel or Piper from bursting his eardrums with their shrieks of how it was all 'so adorable!' Sharing an amused glance with Jason and Leo, they turned their attention back to the happy couple, just in time to see Annabeth yanking Percy to smash her lips into his.

Tempted to look away to give them their privacy, Frank was then glad that he didn't because the kiss only lasted 5 seconds, before Annabeth suddenly re-enacted their reunion in New Rome, by breaking off the kiss and flipping Percy over her shoulder, so he slammed into the ground, with a painful-sounding thud.

Slightly worried for Percy's health, well he does have a severely broken arm and all, Frank leaned forward to get a better view only to see Percy rolling his eyes at Annabeth, and he saw that Annabeth had been careful not to jostle Percy's broken arm during the flip, that he was fine.

"Of course I will marry you Seaweed Brain, I've loved you since we were 12. Otherwise, I wouldn't have put up with the constant battles with monsters, giants, titans, gods, for nothing, or the disappearances, or the completely utter ignorance, even after I freaking kiss you on the lips right before we're about to-", Annabeth's miniature rant of all the times Percy caused her blood pressure to increase, was suddenly cut off by Percy leaping to his feet, and grabbing Annabeth to pull her closer to him, and kissing her just like she did to him.

That was when everyone did look away, including Poseidon whose face was tinted with a telltale red blush, which Frank couldn't really blame, considering his son was planning on marrying the daughter of his biggest rival. Looking up at the top of the air-dome though, Frank saw that it was about mid-day now, and it had been tight before dawn when Oceanus had attacked.

Sighing because he realized of course that if Percy and Annabeth had their way, they wouldn't separate until dusk at the earliest, which they just couldn't afford, with their already rapidly approaching deadline of defeating the giants and preventing Gaea from rising, Frank tried to awkwardly clear his throat, which didn't have any effect at all.

"Son, I really am happy for you and Annabeth here, but don't you two have a story to finish? Also, I for one, would love to know how you acquired those welts and poisoned skin on your chest," interrupted Poseidon.

Upon hearing the Lord of the Sea's voice, Percy and Annabeth broke apart so fast, it was like they had been struck by lightning. As the couple turned to face the group again, Frank saw that both their faces were redder than a fire truck, but whether that was from embarrassment or excitement, or both, he couldn't tell.

"Oh right, well there isn't much of the story left, basically after Percy defeated Akhlys, we ran into Nyx's kingdom, where we ran into her nightliness herself, and a bunch of her kids. I used my quick thinking to trick them into being distracted, which allowed Percy and I to race through the Mansion of Night, and leap over the River Acheron; after that, we entered the section of Tartarus where the Doors of Death were located.

"The Doors of Death was actually just a magical elevator where someone from the Tartarus side had to hold a button for 8 minutes to allow people to go up into the mortal world. To sum up a very long and traumatizing fight, where Tartarus himself actually showed up to kill us, not fun by the way, Damasen who chose to change his destiny arrived, and he and Bob fought Tartarus, allowing Percy and I to escape. And you guys know the rest," concluded Annabeth.

"Annabeth, although you may be a daughter of Athena, who I have no pleasant feelings for, I am very glad you were there with my son to keep him alive, I doubt he would have survive without you," praised the Sea God.

"Well, the old joke that Percy wouldn't be able to find his way out of a paper-bag without me is true, he wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for me, so it is I who should be thanking him for not letting me fall alone," answered Annabeth, getting a little choked up at the end.

Saving his son the surely long-winded speech he was about to deliver, Poseidon stated bluntly, "While that story certainly sounded very traumatizing, and I am truly sorry the both of you had to suffer though that, I did not hear however, how you got those welts Percy. Care to explain?"

Frank saw that Percy flushed an even deeper red than before at the sudden attention, and Frank realized that Percy had probably thought that they hadn't noticed his condition before, which they certainly had, they would have to be blind to miss his constant miniscule winces of pain.

"Well… Dad… You see…"

"Percy, quit stalling, and tell me."

"Fine, at the Doors of Death when we were battling a ton of monsters at once, I was fighting an Arai and I had to kill it, resulting in another curse, which caused the welts, and another curse caused the lung problems and green-skin. Before you ask, I don't remember which monster or enemy could have possibly cursed me with this though," reluctantly explained Percy, avoiding all their worried-filled gazes.

"I see, in that case, I will give you some of my own personal ambrosia, blessed by me, only fit for my or a relative of mine's consumption. It is very strong, so it will be able to heal you quickly, but it can be very dangerous if you have even more than a couple bites, which is why I didn't want to give it you before. Also-" whatever Poseidon had been about to say, was cut off by his form abruptly changing from his beach bum outfit to one of a sea-green toga that radiated power, who Frank immediately recognized as Neptune, before changing back.

"That is why us gods have been confined to our thrones on Olympus, those personality changes and the headache it brings, is excruciating. I have been managing to hold off my Roman side for the past few hours for this visit, but the longer I suppress it, the more fiercely it tries to break free. Please, demigods, get along and don't cause any more rifts between the Greeks and Romans, it is much easier when you guys are getting along.

"Percy, that is also why I haven't been there for you in the past couple months. I know you feel like I have abandoned you, and for that I am truly sorry, but if I could have interfered, I would have, but I am being more closely monitored by the Fates than even Zeus himself. There are ancient laws at work here son, and I couldn't, and still can't, break them without literally ending the world.

"Sadly, I must be going now, the headaches lessen a little bit being on Mount Olympus, our home place. Before I go though, Frank," Frank started a bit at being abruptly addressed, "here a gift of a form of my trident of transportation, you will know what to use it for. For the rest of you, I have a gift for you that will be evident when it is necessary. Now, I must bid you all good-bye, and good luck!" Before anyone could utter a world, the Sea God was already gone.

Obviously not knowing where to begin on Poseidon's visit, the others started on the slightly smaller thing, the trident of transportation, which was just a miniature replica of Poseidon's actual golden trident, sitting in Frank's palm.

"Frank, what was my dad talking about? Why will you need that?" inquired Percy.

"The only thing I can think of is that when we were in the House of Hades, my ancestor, Periclymenus spoke in my head, commanding me to go to Pylos where he would be waiting for me."

"Well you obviously have to go man, and since we should probably count this as a quest, who are the two people you want with you?" Asked Jason.

"This is my ancestor that's descended from Poseidon, so I think Percy should be one of my two choices, if we need a sudden shield, I've seen your skills with freezing and manipulating water, and I know you've got us covered. Is that ok with you Perce?" Frank requested hesitantly, not wanting to put his friend through any more pain.

Ignoring Annabeth's worried glance, Percy nodded confidently, showing that he was in.

While he would love to take Hazel with him, his gut was telling him that she was needed back at the ship with the others. Knowing that if he didn't do it like this, he would feel like he was picking favorites, Frank cleared his mind and let the first demigod pop into his brain that felt right in both his mind and gut.

Closing his eyes, Frank did just that, and was mildly surprised when his answer was Piper, but decided that he wasn't one to challenge the fates.

"Hazel, you know I love you, but I get the feeling you and your abilities are needed elsewhere. When I'm going on my gut-instinct, my gut is telling me that, you Piper, are the third person on my quest to Pylos."

Frank saw that Piper's multi-colored eyes widened slightly in shock at being chosen, before a grin leaking onto her face as she nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course, Frank, whatever you think is best, you are the leader on this one."

Not wasting any time, he, Percy, and Piper quickly huddled in a circles, before they all put their hands on the miniature trident, where they were all suddenly whisked away.

The sensation of moving by the trident of transportation was very off-putting, which is why when the three of them suddenly slammed into a marble fountain in the streets of Pylos, they all lay there dazed for a second, before regaining their senses and bearings.

Just as he was getting the world to stop spinning around him though, and before he had a chance to see if Percy and Piper had made it through alright, Frank heard a growl from what seemed to be right behind him.

Not missing a beat, Frank spun around using his demigod reflexes to keep him from losing his balance while he was standing in the foot of water, only to come face-to-face with what he recognized as a multi-headed hydra, dozens of telekhines, and the ancient monster, Kampe who used to guard the hundred-handed ones and cyclopses during Kronos' rule. All three forms of monsters though, were glaring at them with murderous expressions on their faces, making Frank wonder if he and the others should have written their wills before they left.

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: "I'm back to my devious cliff-hangers!"**

**Frank: "You act like I'm supposed to be happy about that."**

**Me: "You know you can at least act interested, or I may have to alter my plans to incorporate some unfortunate events…." **

**Frank: "I'm not afraid, the actual Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan is coming out tomorrow, you can't do anything worse to me than whatever Rick does."**

**Me: "Fine, you win this one Zhang, but mark my words, this isn't over!" *evil laughter***


	9. Two Very Serious Questions

Hello people of Fan Fiction! **dodges swords and tomatoes** Yeah, I guess I deserve that, after almost a week of silence. I'm not going to try to excuse myself, just that a very close family friend just died and with the mindset I've been in, I would have killed off all the characters. Now, I am very well aware that the actual Blood of Olympus came out on Tuesday (YAYYYYYY!), and my hard-cover copy actually just arrived at my house today. However, I was planning on rereading the entire series before reading BoO, and I am only on Sea of Monsters at the moment. Now, I have two questions (that are connected), that I am asking every single reader to please answer. I want to know if you guys want me to continue this Fan Fiction, and if you don't I completely understand, and I will still write Fan Fiction, just not this one. If you say yes, then I want to know that since I have planned this story out to a very exact detail, and I swear on the Styx I won't change it, if you guys would mind if I read the actual Blood of Olympus because I can't stand having it at my house but not being able to read it. However, if you guys say yes to both questions, know that I would still read the entire series before BoO so maybe for a couple more chapters, I would still be ignorant. I have not started the next chapter (don't kill me, I just got back literally from a weekend of sleepovers 5 minutes ago), but it would be ready for you guys (regardless of your answers, I would still give you guys one last chapter), at the latest Tuesday. One more thing though, I did promise my friend to have BoO read by November 7th, so I do need to have read it, regardless of this Fan Fiction. Any who, please respond with the answers to my questions!


	10. Chapter 9- Hazel

** Author's Note: See guys, I told you that I would have this chapter out by today, even though it means that I won't get more than 4 hours of sleep tonight. Anyway, thank you **_**heatherfda17**_** and **_**PerceusSeaweedBrainJackson**_** for responding to my questions. Both of you asked me to continue this story, so for that I am forever grateful, but you both also told me that I shouldn't read the actual Blood of Olympus before finishing this Fan-Fiction. While I completely understand why you say that, because you are afraid I will post spoilers or incorporate Rick's work into my own, please know that I would never do that. Before I am asked though, I have not read BoO yet, no matter how much I want to, but I am on The Lost Hero now (I know the last time I updated, I was on The Sea of Monsters, but when I want to, I can read pretty fast, so I started/finished The Sea of Monsters and The Titan's Curse yesterday, and The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian today). Anyway, I will delay reading BoO until November 7****th**** gets closer, but I will have to eventually read it (but I do swear that I would never post spoilers or plagiarize). Enough of my rambling though, onto my story, where we see what is going on with the rest of the crew while Percy, Frank, and Piper are on their mini-quest (sorry if my writing is a little choppy, I wanted to make sure this chapter got uploaded tonight)!**

_**Song of the Chapter: **__**Too Little, Too Late **_**by JoJo**

Chapter 9- Hazel POV

Seeing Frank, Percy, and Piper disappear into thin-air was almost enough to bring tears to Hazel's eyes. Her heart was aching something fierce at the fact that she wasn't with her love and on his quest, even though she knew she was needed more on the ship, than on the mini-quest to Pylos.

Sighing, Hazel did her best to put on her impassive face, and she turned to the rest of the Seven, who looked like she did, heartbroken but resigned, even Leo which gave Hazel's mind pause, considering he didn't have a boyfriend/girlfriend off on the mini-quest. Shaking her head, deciding to ask Leo about it later, Hazel decided to ask the question everyone was wondering.

"Great, we are at the bottom of the ocean. How are we going to get to the surface and fix our severely damaged ship?"

This caused many bewildered then panicked looks amongst the other 3 demigods like they had just realized their situation. Before anyone could say anything though, Hazel felt a sudden cold current pass through their air-bubble, and before she knew it, her whole vision blurred and she felt herself spinning.

Considering she got seasick on the tamest oceans, this new situation did nothing for her stomach. Just before she knew she was going to throw-up, Hazel felt her knees suddenly connect with rough stone.

Not missing a beat, she leapt to her feet and unsheathed her spatha, and quickly looked around to become aware of her new surroundings. Before she could properly take in the setting, Hazel saw that Leo, Jason, and Annabeth were lying next to her, struggling to their feet as well, looking like they too were trying to hold in their lunches.

Giving everyone a minute to regain their wits, Hazel took the moment to observe her latest location. She did not recognize the quaint town, uneven cobblestone streets, sanitary white buildings, or the lush mountainside with its ominous caves and full-bloom trees. Although, that wasn't saying much considering she had spent her entire life either in New Orleans, Alaska, or Camp Jupiter, not counting the recent quest she went on with Frank and Percy.

"Anyone know where we are? I've been to a lot of places, you know living on the streets on-and-off, but I've never been here," declared Leo, always the blunt one.

"I know this place! Although, I've never been here, only read about it. Anyway, we are in a small part of the country Montenegro, a country boarding the Mediterranean. However, I don't know exactly what town we are in," stated Annabeth, ever the informational one.

"Fantastic, and do you know just how we got here? I felt a sudden cold wave, and then we were here!" demanded an irritated Jason.

"I don't know for sure, but my best guess would be that this was Poseidon's gift to us. From what I remember, there is a harbor 20 miles from here, and I'm sure the remains of the Argo II are there, but we do need to get supplies, which Poseidon recognized. I would bet that he transported us here to get what we need, and then we can go back to the ship," guessed Annabeth.

Since no one had any better guesses pertaining to what just happened, they all shrugged and went with Annabeth's hypothesis. Dusting themselves off, they all started off towards the shopping area of the town, where they guessed where the hardware stores would be.

Leo did most of the work with tracking down the supplies, though how he knew which ones to get without even seeing the damage was beyond Hazel's guessing abilities. As Leo gathered the supplies, Hazel realized with a rush of panic that they didn't have any money, which she confided to Annabeth.

"Hazel, as reluctant as I am to suggest this, I am going to have to ask you to use your abilities with the mist to make euros- the currency here- 'appear'. It's the only way we will be able to get what we need, and we are kind of pressed for time," reluctantly suggested Annabeth, who looked very uncomfortable at the idea of stealing.

While Hazel had been raised to be the best girl she could be, combined with the fact that she was Roman, made it so she very rarely broke any rules. Taking a deep breath though, Hazel resigned herself to the fact that they were going to have to steal if they ever wanted to be able to save the world. She supposed the phrase, "the ends justify the means", fit very well here.

This didn't stop Hazel from dragging her feet over to where Leo was impatiently waiting for her at the counter, with about half the store's supplies with him. With a snap of her fingers, the cashier's eyes glazed over and he wrote something on a receipt, signaling that everything was paid for, and that they were free to go.

Terrified that the cashier would somehow come to his wits and call the police, Hazel, Leo, Annabeth, and Jason all hurried out of the store as fast as they could without looking suspicious and while carrying about 200 pounds of repair materials.

They had almost gotten to the edge of the town, where it was most busiest with tourists surrounding some ancient fountain, when Hazel felt Annabeth suddenly stiffen up beside her.

Spinning around to see what is wrong, because Annabeth was one of the toughest people she knew, meaning she definitely didn't scare easily, Hazel saw with wide-eyes a giant spider-woman approaching in the distance.

In the back of her mind, Hazel recognized that that was Arachne, but she was more focused on Arachne's companions, the giant king himself, Porphyrion. Both monsters were grinning widely, like they knew how much fear was coursing through Hazel's veins at that very second, given away by 100 diamonds suddenly popping up around her feet.

Sparing a wild glance behind her, Hazel realized at the same times as the other three demigods that mortals that could be used as hostages or killed out of spite surrounded them, and there wasn't an abandoned building anywhere that they could duck into. However, using her keen eyesight, Hazel spotted a bunch of sea-caves on the mountainside, within sprinting distance, that would allow them some refugee.

Not daring to speak her plan out loud, Hazel just nudged Jason's shoulder and discreetly pointed to the sea-caves, signaling her plan. Luckily, Jason immediately got the message, because he immediately passed it onto Leo. She was about to pass it onto Annabeth, when Hazel noticed that the daughter of Athena had seized up and had gone rigid with flashbacks overcoming her mind.

Just when Hazel thought the situation couldn't get any worse, for Arachne and Porphyrion were still advancing and would reach them at any moment, the wind suddenly picked up and a deafening clap of thunder shook the skies. Hazel didn't even need to look up to see the pitch-black clouds rolling in, producing great volts of lightning every few seconds.

Hazel knew they only had about 5 minutes before the unexpected hurricane struck, and 10 before the monsters attacked. Her mind whirling at top-speed, Hazel realized that the first thing they needed to do was get rid of the mortals.

She needn't bother even tell Jason or Leo her realization though, because Leo had already lit a small fire in his hand, and Jason then used his powers over the winds to spread the smell of the smoke to the people of the town, insuring maximum panic.

Hazel knew the next step was up to her, so for the second time within the hour, she snapped her fingers, but this time it was to make an uncontrollable wild fire appear in the eyes of the mortals, racing down the street, 'threatening' everyone and everything in the town.

This got rid of the mortals within 1-½ minutes, it was amazing what panic could do, so the previously crowded streets were now virtually empty. Arachne and Porphyrion looked surprised at how they managed to clear out the extra bystanders so fast, providing Hazel with the perfect distraction to the following step in her plan.

Closing her eyes, she willed a camouflage to bend around herself and the three other demigods, making it so they appeared to have disappeared into thin air. Not missing a beat, Hazel then made two tunnels appear in the monsters' visions, using not her mist powers, but her earth-centered ones. Another snap of her fingers though, hopefully made a scent to appear to both monsters that the group had split up, Jason and Hazel going one way, Leo and Annabeth the other.

Ignoring the wind whirling around her, Hazel prayed that her glamour would hold as she watched Arachne and Porphyrion break into an argument on which way they should go, until finally deciding to split up themselves.

Smirking to herself, Hazel observed Arachne enter the tunnel on the right, the one that she had made it appear that Leo and Annabeth had escaped in. The minute Arachne got past the exit, Leo immediately summoned large amount of fire to his hands that was promptly thrown at the overgrown spider, incinerating her before she even realized she had been tricked and could shout a warning.

When she had made the tunnels, Hazel had tried to will them to lead straight to Tartarus, but considering her time-crunch she didn't know if she had succeeded or not. She was thinking this as she watched Porphyrion blindly charge into the tunnel, thinking that no one could outsmart him, and that his targets were lounging right behind him, laughing at his stupidity.

Not taking any chances though, Hazel immediately collapsed the tunnel with a flick of her hand as soon as she felt like the time was right. She was about to ask Jason to help her, but he beat her to the punch, by willing a great wind to blow on the rocks, forcing them to collapse upon themselves even more. Leo then blasted the entrance with all the firepower at his disposal, causing them to melt and solidify into an impenetrable entrance.

Although, she wished that she could have killed him, Hazel still took plenty of joy hearing Porphyrion's outraged cries, when he realized that he was trapped, and since his powers only covered the sky, he was helpless.

However, Hazel didn't let that fool her into thinking that would hold Porphyrion for long, she grabbed Annabeth's arm, which was still shaking with overwhelming memories, and started sprinting towards the mountains, trusting Jason and Leo to follow her.

Keeping Annabeth from falling was taking up so much of Hazel's attention and energy, especially because the rain had finally started making the up-hill slope muddy and slippery and the fact that Gaea kept trying to trip them up by ensnaring their feet with roots. Hazel didn't even immediately realize that it was just Leo following her.

A quick glance upward though, showed Hazel that Jason had used his air powers to allow him to fly, and be able to scout the caves before anyone else reached them. Smiling to herself, Hazel thought to herself how Jason will never change, he will always be a selfless idiot, who can't stand others being in danger if he could help it. With a jerk, Hazel realized that Jason was a lot like another child of the Big Three she knew, Percy.

Promising herself to explore these thoughts another time, Hazel, Leo, and Annabeth reached the cave after a very long sprint of a continuous 10 miles. Just as they reached the cave, Annabeth's cloudy glazed grey eyes, began to clear and focus again.

Just as Hazel saw that Annabeth's expression retuned to her normal calculating appearance, meaning that the flashbacks from Tartarus had finally ceased to badger her already traumatized mind, Annabeth's knees suddenly gave out, and her head snapped forward as she let out an agonizing howl, that could only be caused by a broken heart.

**Disclaimer:**

**Hazel: "Wow that was lacking for your usual cliffhanger standards."**

**Me: "Well, I had originally planned this chapter to be longer, but I needed a change of POV, and this was a good place to end it, otherwise this chapter would be way too long. **

**Hazel: "You know Rick never cared how long his chapters were, he would just write whatever he wanted."**

**Me: "Care to give me an example on how he did that in Blood of Olympus?"**

**Hazel: "You can't trick me, I refuse to tell you any spoilers, and that goes to the readers too! No reviews contained spoilers! Or that will make Rick, the one who actually owns us, very mad, he hates it when any of his readers are spoiled unnecessarily!"**


	11. Chapter 10- Annabeth

**Author's Note: Sorry guys, this chapter is more of a filler than anything else, there isn't a lot of action in it, but it is crucial to the story line, so please pay attention and remember it!**

**Song of the Day: **_Bonkers _by Dizee Rasca

Chapter 10- Annabeth POV

Annabeth was pretty sure that she had been someone insanely evil in a past life, because that was the only possible way she thought for the fates to curse her with such a suck-ish life. She had dealt with being unwanted by her father and stepmother when she was 7, it didn't matter that they had recently changed, they were still awful back then, finding a happy life with Thalia and Luke only for Thalia to die right in front of her, be stuck at Camp Half-Blood for five years, Luke betray her and the camp, get attached to Percy and finally open her heart to him, only for the worst goddess in the world, Hera, to kidnap him and make him forget her. And that was not even mentioning the regular demigod troubles, like almost dying every other second from one monster or another.

_Just once, why can't my life be simple?_ Annabeth asked herself. She thought that after the Second Titan War, after everything she and Percy had sacrificed, that they would be able to settle down and have a happy relationship together, but nooooo, the stupid goddess of intestinally challenged cows had to decide that her Percy was the perfect candidate to kidnap. Not even when she got Percy back from the Romans did they get to be happy together, because of course the fates decided that it would be fun for them to fall into Tartarus together, facing unspeakable horrors that left them forever mentally and physically scarred.

Surely after all that, she and Percy would be able to get their happily after ever? Nope, because Percy had to leave her and go with Frank and Hazel on some mini-quest to do or retrieve something that they didn't even know.

Annabeth knew that Percy didn't know how much him leaving on that mini-quest hurt her, otherwise she knew he would never have gone, but that didn't help her overwhelmed heart. The truth was, that after all they had been through, she _needed_ Percy by her side, just as much as she needed her heart to keep beating; and with him being gone, she felt like she was slowly dying.

Maybe that was why when she saw Arachne, she completely broke down, even though her friends desperately needed her and her brains. The last time she had seen Arachne, she had just landed in Tartarus with Percy, who saved her when she thought she was going to die. With facing the queen spider again, and having the reminder that her Seaweed Brain wasn't with her and that she didn't even know if he was ok, made her normally razor-sharp mind panic and shut itself down in the wave of traumatizing memories assaulting it.

She hadn't even been aware of what Hazel, Jason, and Leo did to defeat Porphyrion and Arachne, and she had only been slightly conscious of Hazel pulling her up the hill to get shelter from the storm. Annabeth didn't know what had kept her from breaking down the entire time before, all she knew was, that the moment her body felt like it was relatively safe, she completely broke down in despair.

Sometimes being a daughter of Athena was as much as a curse as it was a blessing, because her extremely intelligent mind always calculated every possible outcome to every situation, and right then, all she could think of was Percy. The fact that he wasn't there to help her with Arachne this time, only fueled her imagination with all sorts of gruesome scenes of him being dead or worse, because she knew he would have been there for her if he was ok. It didn't matter that the logical side of her knew that he had no clue what she was doing then, her heart was running the show on this one, and all it knew was that her Seaweed Brain wasn't right beside her where he belonged.

Annabeth was so overcome with her long-suppressed emotions, she wasn't even aware of Jason futilely attempting to light a fire by rubbing wet sticks together, or Leo rolling his eyes, and snapping his fingers to light a spontaneous enormous bonfire. The only thing that was able to draw Annabeth from her misery was, a sudden shadowy figure forming from the smoke of the fire.

While she could tell that Hazel, Leo, and Jason had knew clue who this mysterious figure was, obviously assuming it was some sort of monster, Annabeth immediately recognized the form as her mother, Athena, dressed in a stormy grey t-shirt and jeans, with a battle helmet decorated with snowy white owls on her head. The sudden appearance of the goddess of wisdom was enough to shock Annabeth out of her crying, and force her to hurriedly recompose herself for her Olympian mother.

"Annabeth, don't bother to hide your emotions, treat them as a strength rather than a weakness. Your heart and ability to love only reflects on how brave and strong you've been; I am so proud of you," unexpectantly praised Athena.

Annabeth was taken so off-guard at the compliment, especially since the last time she had seen her mother, she had been disowned, she was shocked silent, allowing Athena to continue speaking.

"You must listen to me, Annabeth, while your emotions are a sense of strength, don't let them interfere with your mind and decision making. This upcoming war with the giants and mother earth herself, is unlike I've ever seen, and I've been around for a long time.

"This war is unique because before, it has been one species against another, but for this one, it is made up a variety of species on both sides. For example, some of the minor gods are on Gaea and Tartarus's side, others are on the Olympians; same goes with the Titans. All the giants, except Damasen, and a lot of monsters are on Gaea and Tartarus's side. As for the Primordials, such as Nyx and Eros are split. However, the rest of the species of our world, have sided with the Olympians, fortunately.

"I ask you, brave daughter of mine, for you and the rest of the seven to not blindly kill any creature you meet, but instead, to try to convince them to help you and us. Please try to forget any creature's past, any thing can help us at this point, even the Minotaur.

"Also, for the sake of the world, please try to forgive the Olympians, and myself, for our mistakes. We are not perfect, far from it, and we desperately need you demigods, our children, to help us correct our past errors."

Athena suddenly broke off, looking like she wanted to say more, but she settled for turning her head, and staring at a bewildered Leo, like she even though she was talking to Annabeth and the rest of the seven, her message of forgiveness was meant directly for him. Before Annabeth could open her mouth to ask what was going on and why Leo was glaring fiercely at her mother, the wisdom goddess spoke again, once again speaking to her daughter.

"Annabeth, I know about everything that has happened recently, from how lost you were when Hera, curse her, took Percy, to what you and Poseidon's spawn went through in that pit. I want to let you know, that as much as it pains me to say this, I give you the sea brat my blessing and my thanks for not letting you go to Tartarus alone."

All throughout Athena's speech, Annabeth was trying to keep an open mind about what Athena was saying, on how they couldn't afford to blindly kill monsters like they were trained to do and that they actually had previously evil beings on their side this time, when the last thing her mother said registered in her mind.

Annabeth was about to open her mouth to either tell off her mother that she never needed her blessing or to thank her for her acceptance, Annabeth still didn't know, but was interrupted by Athena's normally sharp stormy grey eyes, softening to an ash grey, and her mouth puckering into a compassionate frown.

"You must keep in mind though, Perseus is one of the most powerful demigods to have ever existed, and with that much power, there comes an unpreventable tragic fate. Remember what I said, my daughter, use your emotions to your advantage, but still be able to put them aside to let you make the wisest decision for all."

Not wanting to believe her ears, refusing to believe what her mother had said could be true, Annabeth immediately lost her temper.

"No! You're lying! Percy has beat the odds before, and he will again! You just want him to die because you can't get over a stupid eons old grudge with his father! Percy would never leave me, not even in death!" bellowed the daughter of wisdom.

Annabeth expected for her mother to yell, maybe even disown her again, she just couldn't deal with understanding and compassion, which was unfortunately what was given. Even though Athena's imagine began to flicker in the flames, signaling that her time of communication was almost up, the goddess of wisdom still used her time to try to comfort her heartbroken daughter.

"I understand your anger and denial, I truly do, but remember the myths and your history, what is a hero's fate? How many monsters has Percy defeated? How many enemies has he accumulated? You are my daughter, a true child of wisdom, think with your brain Annabeth, and not your heart, and you know what I am saying is true.

"Never forget though, I love you, even if I don't always show it, and you are so strong and intelligent, I could never be prouder of you than I am now.

Only after Athena's imagine flickered for the last time and completely disappeared, did Annabeth completely lose control, letting herself sink to her knees, and repeatedly whisper to herself that Percy was safe, that he shouldn't always be the savior or that it was impossible that he had a typical hero's fate, it just wasn't possible. Not even the arms of Jason, Leo, or Hazel rapping around her distraught body was enough to break Annabeth out of her trance, the only thing that would have been able to was the only current demigod son of Poseidon, and he was far far away from the damp depressing mountain cave in the middle of an unknown town in Montenegro.

It was with a heavy heart that the daughter of the crafty goddess, cried herself into a restless sleep, full of nightmares of the son of sea being tortured, listening to the thunder rumbling outside and the lightning striking trees not even miles away from their man-made shelter.

**Disclaimer: **

**Me: "I don't own anything in the world of Percy Jackson, only Rick Riordan does."**

**Leo: "What kind of disclaimer is that?! That's boring!"**

**Me: "That is what you get when I am tired, and currently out of ideas for a new original disclaimer. Just please remember everyone not to post any spoilers for the actual Blood of Olympus!"**


	12. Chapter 11- Piper

** Author's Note: Alright guys, this chapter is where this story actually starts to get interesting, rather than drag along with filler chapters like before. So while this chapter is extremely short, it is **_**VERY **_**action filled, and ends on a bigger cliffhanger than normal. Because of the shortness, I decided to complete this chapter tonight to give to you guys, so you're welcome! However, I don't know when I will be able to update next, definitely not tomorrow because I've got this two-hour long Girl Scout thing after school. I could possibly update Wednesday, or if I don't update then, then the next time an update could occur is possibly Saturday, although the latest would be a week from tomorrow, making it Tuesday the 28****th****. Yes, yes, I know that is incredibly far away, and I will do my absolute best to update as soon as possible, it's just that I have a ton of things to do for Girl Scouts this month, Mock Trial, and since it's the end of the marking period, I have a ton of tests and projects to do. Now, you guys know I have never asked this before, but to be honest, the main thing that keeps me motivated to write is your guys' feedback and comments since the book has already come out so I'm not writing anymore to solely deal with the wait. To get to the point, what really makes me write faster is reviews, as corny as that sounds and I do know that almost every author has said it, but it is true. So if you want the next chapter sooner rather than later, (although I won't stoop as low as to threaten not to give you guys a chapter if you don't review), then please tell me what you are thinking of this story so far! Anyway, this chapter is from Piper's POV, so we see what is going on with her, Percy, and Frank, but if you have trouble remembering what is going on with them, go back to the end of chapter 8 to jog your memory. Happy reading (mwahaha)! **

**Review Responses:**

_**drash252:**_** I'm thrilled that you like my story so much! Of course I will keep updating, and thanks for the review! **

**Song of the Chapter:**_**Come With Me Now **_**by Kongos**

Chapter 11- Piper POV

__Piper was sad to admit that when she saw Kampe and the hydra, she froze. She later told herself it was from over-frayed nerves and her exhausted mind that just couldn't take anymore surprises without shutting down. Fortunately though, her hesitance didn't cost her or her friend's their lives, because Percy, using his superior, even for a demigod, reflexes to create a shield from the water in the fountain and the water-molecules in the air to shield the three of them.

As it turned out, Percy had used that ability just in time, because Piper didn't even have time to blink before she felt a sudden wave of fire hit the water shield, thrown at them by the hydra. While Piper was immensely grateful towards Percy for his quick-thinking, she wished that he had allowed others a chance to help, mostly because he looked like he was going to drop at any moment, and didn't look like he was in a position to be able to waste excess energy. Although Piper figured that he did that because of his fatal flaw of sacrificing everything he had for his friends, she couldn't help but think that if he kept doing that, he would get himself killed.

Piper suddenly started though, the reason having nothing to do with the murderous glares being tossed her way by the monsters. _When did I start thinking like Nico, being so depressing, pondering possible deaths?_ Piper asked herself. Shaking the gloomy thoughts from her head, she tuned back into the situation at hand, where the three of them were still being assaulted by the hydra's fire, preventing them from being able to move, giving Kampe ample opportunity to attack.

Surveying the scene in front of her, Piper recognized that she was still a newbie in the demigod world, meaning she hadn't met a lot of monsters yet. Also even though there was a mandatory mythology class back at Camp Half-Blood, when she had gotten back from her quest with Jason and Leo, everything had been pretty disorganized with the efforts to find Percy and build the Argo II. So while Piper was far from an expert on mythology, she still knew enough from back when her dad did that movie.

Basing her knowledge from that, Piper knew that monsters rarely travelled in packs, for they were as likely to kill each other as they were to kill demigods and heroes, and that they only were able to remotely cooperate when they had a common goal or if they had orders from a hierarchy.

With that, Piper realized that it was no coincidence that they were being attacked by so many monsters at once, Gaea must have sent them as a distraction, to try to prevent them, or really Frank, from finding and talking to Periclymenus. So with a sudden jolt of adrenaline, Piper knew that it was absolutely essential for Frank to talk to his ancestor, if Gaea had deemed it important enough to sent two different types of vicious monsters to try to stop them.

Barely sparing a glance over to Frank where he too remained behind Percy's water shield that was beginning to falter under the fire's intensity, trying to shape-shift into an animal that could help them, possibly a dragon, Piper shouted over to him,

"Frank! Go find your ancestor! Leave Percy and I, we can handle the monsters, your mission is more important! We'll be fine!" ordered Piper.

She knew it was cruel and underhanded, but Piper couldn't help putting a little charmspeak into her command, because Frank looked like he still wanted to hang back and help them. Even then, he still had a hesitant look upon his war-hardened face, but he still took a deep breath, transforming into a pigeon, where he was able to quickly fly out from behind the water shield that Percy was still desperately trying to uphold, and swerve to avoid the hydra's continuous fire attack.

Just as Frank was safely out of range, when he landed 25 feet away on the sidewalk where he could begin his search; Percy's energy finally started to fail him, causing him to completely drop his water shield. They both had just enough warning to be able to throw themselves to opposite sides to the ground, to avoid the fire.

Piper saw out of the corner of her eye, that Percy didn't even take a second to regain his presence of mind or even breath, he just immediately shot to his feet again, although how he did that with his chest and welts, Piper would never know, and immediately charged at Kampe, barely pausing to unsheathe his weapon from his pant's pocket.

Heaving a great sigh, _this is when I wish Annabeth was here, she would be able to get Percy and his nobility under control, and to get him to think and plan before charging into battle_, Piper figured that meant that the hydra was for her.

After all she had seen, Piper just morphed her face into a completely emotionless mask, and got ready to lay on the charmspeak thick, just knowing she had to kill the hydra before it hurt Percy, who already had enough issues.

"Yo hydra! Is that all you got? What good are those five heads of yours, if the only thing you can do is shoot fire at us, and not even well!" taunted Piper.

Before shouting those insults, Piper had not considered her steps afterward; she had just wanted to get the multi-headed monster's attention on her, which she had definitely succeeded in. Not giving herself a second to chicken out by looking at the heads, Piper searched her most intellectual and witty part of her mind, which sounded a lot like Annabeth, for her next step.

"You know hydra, I bet that your fire is so weak, it wouldn't be able to pierce your scales now would it? Why don't you give it a try, prove me wrong? That's right, burn yourself!" bellowed Piper, pouring all her pent-up power and emotions into her sadistic command.

With the amount of authority she put into her words, it was no wonder that the hydra chose to listen to her, and immediately snapped its head down, and proceeded to shoot its fire at its own chest. The monster was using all five heads for its attack, and didn't stop until it was nothing but a pile or charred scales.

Not giving herself any time to congratulate herself, not even realizing that she had successfully proven Khione, Drew, and all those mean girls she had ever faced wrong, that she wasn't useless, Piper immediately turned her attention to Percy and his fight with Kampe.

Observing the scene before her, Piper saw that Percy had previously summoned an earthquake to throw Kampe off-balance, again where he got the strength, Piper had no clue, and while the previous jailer had been slightly disoriented, the son of Poseidon proceeded to engage in battle with her poisonous scimitars.

Percy was so entranced in his fight, and so was Piper, that neither of them noticed that Kampe and the hydra hadn't been alone, they had a lone telekhine with them, that had been previously hiding. Well, hiding until that moment, where it then decided to make its entrance at the worst moment possible.

Kampe had just succeeded into making Percy do a rushed flip backwards in the air, to prevent having his head decapitated, throwing his sense and battle-instincts off. As he was regaining his footing, Piper suddenly saw a telekhine silently sneak up behind him, with a gleaming razor-sharp celestial bronze sword in its hand.

Piper was just about to run over to Percy to warn him and kill the telekhine, when she found that while she had been watching the fight, her feet had sunk into the earth up to her shins, making it impossible for her to move. Shouting out a warning was out of the question, because she had found that her mouth wouldn't open, like someone had stuck it together with super-strong glue. A glance out of the corner of her eye proved to Piper that Frank was no help at the moment, because from what it seemed like, he had found his ancestor and was now engrossed in heated discussion with him.

So it was with a heavy heart that the daughter of Aphrodite had to watch her friend get stabbed in the shoulder, his bad one to add insult to injury, making him black out from the pain and the exhaustion that had been draining him throughout the entire fight. Not missing a beat, Kampe immediately pulled out ropes from what seemed like thin-air, and within five seconds the older jailor of Cyclops and Hundred-Handed Ones, had the son of the sea tied up, and helpless.

During all this, Piper hadn't even noticed that Frank had finished his conversation, and before he could have said anything, Gaea had gotten to him too, pulling him half-way into the earth and freezing him, but still allowing him to keep his presence of mind, so he could retain his ability to feel fear.

"Now what will it be daughter of love? You refused to choose before in Kansas, I am offering you another chance to redeem yourself to me. Who will you choose to save; yourself or your friends? The son of Poseidon is non-negotiable, but if you give yourself you peacefully, I may consider letting this pudgy son of Mars go, and spare your other friends who are currently huddling terrified on a mountain-side cave, overwhelmed by _my_ forces.

"Can you do it, pathetic Aphrodite spawn? Do you possess the nobility to give yourself up? Or will you condemn this puny Roman war child to your fate, and one of your other female friends, maybe the aggravating daughter of Athena, your first friend at Camp Half-Blood? She has already given me so much pain; I really would have no problem using her as my sacrifice instead. But the question is, would you be able to live with the guilt?" taunted Gaea in Piper's ear.

Before Piper could gather her thoughts enough to tell Gaea to go to Tartarus, the earth goddess may have chosen to taunt her even more, because she had taken off her charm on Frank's mouth, allowing the new praetor to speak.

"Piper, don't do it! Even if you give yourself up, you know she won't let me go! Don't be a self-sacrificing idiot! Don't give yourself up, I'm not worth it!" cried Frank, desperate for him not to be the cause of Piper's certain death.

"Oh don't listen to Zhang over there Piper, he doesn't know what he is talking about. I swear on the River Styx that if you give yourself up without a fight, I will let Frank go, unharmed," swore Gaea.

While Piper knew that Gaea had ulterior motives, she was evil after all, of course she didn't mean exactly what she said, Piper knew in her heart that this was the best way, the only option at the moment that would guarantee at least one person here's survival, and that was Frank's. Not giving herself a chance to think about Jason, and what he would say when he found out that she sacrificed herself in an attempt to help him and the rest of the crew, Piper had barely nodded her head, signaling that she accepted the earth goddess's terms, before everything went black.

**Disclaimer:**

**Jason: "What?! You had my girlfriend sacrifice and one of her friends up in a futile attempt to save the world?!"**

**Me: "Yeah, basically."**

**Leo: "Not cool girl, not cool at all."**

**Frank: "Also, aren't we going to get to hear what happened with me and my ancestor? That's not fair to exclude the readers on that important information!"**

**Me: "Chill baby-faced Canadian man, all will happen in due time."**

**Frank: "What did you just call me?! I have you know, that in Rick's version of this, the real version, he would never dare call me that!"**

**Me: "Go there then, and by the way, he did come up with that name in the first place."**

**Frank: "You are so mean, maybe for revenge I should tell you what happens in the actual **_**Blood of Olympus**_**."**

**Me: "Don't you dare!" *sprints away with fingers in ears, singing nonsense words at top of lungs***


	13. Chapter 12- Nico

**Author's Note: Sorry guys that I am updating so late, I just have been crazy busy. I was literally in my house for a cumulative 5 hours all weekend (that I was awake), and I had to use those hours to get my homework done. Don't worry though, I haven't forgotten you guys or this story! The earliest there will be another update though is probably this weekend, because I have four tests on Thursday to study for and a 3-hour Orchestra concert tomorrow, and then I have a Halloween to go to on Friday (so if I don't update before then, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!) Even so, I am going to be in New Jersey the rest of the weekend to go to my brother's college for visiting weekend, but I should have some time to write then. If not, the latest I will update is Wednesday the 5****th****, but I will try to post before then. Anyway, a quick warning to all, this is a Nico chapter, and I know it's been awhile since we've heard from him, so if you need to refresh your memory, go back to Chapter 6. Now without a further ado, let us torment (ahem, **_**read about**_**) our favorite son of Hades and daughter of Bellona! **

**Response Reviews:**

_**drash252**_**: Thank you so much for reviewing again, and liking my story so much! It's people like you who give me my motivation to keep writing! As for not killing Percy and Piper, well all will be revealed in due time, patience my young grasshopper. :P Also, thanks a billion for being understanding of my need of some time between writing, to tell you the truth, I am always afraid that someone won't be as understanding as you, and leave me a flame. So thanks again for being reasonable and such a great reader! **

**Song of the Chapter: **_**The Good Life**_** by Three Days Grace**

Nico wasn't sure if it was his demigod instincts taking over or a whisper of his dad's protection from when he was here, but the minute he saw the skeletons and the weird shriveled flying old-ladies carrying whips, who Nico immediately recognized as Keres, he dove to the side taking Reyna down with him. At first, he saw anger flash through the praetor's eyes, but then gratitude set in, when a Kere snapped her whip right where Reyna had previously been sitting.

Taking the moment where they were hidden for the moment, since they had landed behind a ginormous thicket of dark green bushes, Nico quickly whispered in Reyna's ear, not caring about how awkward the situation was with him lying on top of her.

"Don't kill the murderous grannies, if you do, more will just appear and you get a curse wished on you from an enemy of your past, because those are the Keres. The more monsters you have killed, the more Keres there will be for you, so you must be careful! Since we can't kill them without eventually dying ourselves, we'll have to get to the Coach and shadow-travel out of here. Wait here while I try to banish those skeletons; even if they've slipped out of my father's grasp, hopefully they'll still be effected by my powers."

Not giving Reyna a chance to open her mouth and argue with him, Nico quickly sprung to his feet and ran as fast as he could to the clearing where the unfaithful Underworld creatures were circling, or in the skeleton's case, clattering around. If he was honest with himself though, Nico knew that he had leapt at this opportunity, so he could prove that despite his meltdown before, he was still as powerful as ever, even though he knew that Reyna didn't doubt his capabilities for a second, she was too intelligent and levelheaded for that.

Shaking his head to clear his head of all his distracting thoughts of what Reyna now knew about him because of a moment of weakness, Nico leapt into the clearing, and not giving the creatures a chance to react, he thrust his palms to the ground, and prayed that his plan would work. _Please father, I know I wasn't as understanding as I should have been when we talked, something you should know all about, but I really need your help right now. Even if you don't want to help me, help Reyna and Coach Hedge, heck help the world, if we don't return this statue to Camp Half-Blood, you'll spent the rest of eternity, or however long Gaea allows you to live, at war with your own mind. Just please help me out this one time? _

A second hadn't even passed since Nico threw away his dignity and allowed himself to plead for help from his father, when the ground began to shake uncontrollably, like a shattering earth-shake had just decided to rear its ugly head. Nico knew better though, because he didn't need to even look up to where he had collapsed on the ground to see that the field _had_ actually opened itself up, to literally swallow the possessed skeletons, allowing them a one-way ticket back to the Underworld, where they would hopefully stay.

Summoning that earthquake had taken a lot out of him though, even with his father's help and blessing, so he barely had enough strength to lift his head to actually observe the damage he had caused. What he saw, shocked him to the core, which he thought would be impossible by now, but he was proven wrong, because he saw that there was a black line spread across the earth that started where he lay now, and went into the distance, all the way to the start of the other side of the forest, a good two miles away.

Seeing this, reminded Nico painfully of when he had found out officially that Bianca was dead from Percy. That was just the beginning of Nico's screwed up life, where he wasn't even allowed a proper chance to grieve, before creatures of the undead came to try to kill the one he loved the most, though he didn't know it at the time, he thought it had just been an extreme case of hero-worship. But he had heard later what damage he had done to that little strip of land at Camp Half-Blood, and while that was nothing compared to what he had just done, it had marked the first time he had used his powers over the Underworld.

Nico knew at the bottom of his heart though that he had actually just conquered another huge milestone in his life, due to him allowing himself to, at least a little, overcome his fatal flaw of holding grudges. Each demigod had a fatal flaw, and he knew personally, that if they were left unacknowledged and unovercome, they would live up their name, and be fatal. So making at least a little progress to overcome his, was a huge deal, one that could someday save his life or the life of a loved one.

However, before he even had a chance to congratulate himself, he had to quickly do a ridiculous gymnastics move to dodge a flaming whip that was sent his way by a Kere that he had almost forgotten about in light of his accomplishment, and to be able, at the same time to land on his feet. Out of instinct, he threw his fist out to protect himself, temporarily forgetting the whole kill-a-shriveled-old-granny-you-get-a-tormenting-curse issue, which he proved to regret within a millisecond of the Kere disappearing into sparkling golden dust.

Nico immediately collapsed to the ground, blinking back tears, and holding his head, like it was going to split open. However, the curse wasn't a pain curse, it was a memory and life-draining one, put on him by the one and only King Minos, when Nico claimed to be the rightful Ghost King, not him. Apparently, when that had happened 2 years ago in the Labyrinth, the bitter king had cursed the son of Hades to feel the anguish he did when all his hopes and dreams had been taken out from under him, which experiencing was a thousand more times traumatic than it sounded, especially when you were already weak and dazed to being with.

"_How could I ever be proud of you brother when I gave up my life for my friends? What heroic acts have you done?" spoke the cold detached voice of Bianca __in Nico's mind__._

"_You can't even be a true son of mine! Why would I ever care or help you?" chuckled the evil Hades._

"_Why would I want you as my friend? You aren't a true Roman or Greek, you have lied to everyone! You are nothing but a filthy traitor!" accused Reyna._

"_Tell me Nico, why would I ever love you? I have my lovely Annabeth, who is even my lifeline to this world, and all you have ever done for me is either almost get me killed or kidnapped! You are a joke, why would anyone welcome or respect you?" nearly screamed Percy, who spoke the most hurtful things of them all_.

While all of this was happening in Nico's mind, he was curled up in a ball on the ground, completely unaware of his surroundings. He had no clue that Coach Hedge had returned to see Reyna single-handily battling the Keres, desperately trying to hold them off while still not killing any of them. Upon observing this, the Coach had immediately leapt into action and creamed the Keres back to the Tartarus with his celestial bronze baseball bat, not having to worry about curses since he was a satyr, not a demigod or mortal.

During that entire fight, Nico had been slowly losing the will to live. After everything he had been through that day, hearing those things so soon, almost snapped his mind in half, and seeing the darkness closing in, he was losing his determination to fight it off.

"Nico, don't be stupid, I don't know what happened with that curse, just know that I don't care what your sexuality is, I still care about you. You would make one tough Roman even if you are Greek, but anyone who has the strength to live through all that you have, definitely has a place in the legion. So Death Breath, are you going to give up now and let all you have done go to waste or will you continue to fight? Even if you give up on the Camps, which is understandable since they haven't always been the best to you, will you give up on Percy?

"I know you can hear me, you do still have a pulse you know, so will you go to your grave knowing you left the one you love down? Your father told you himself, Percy is going to soon face difficult times, the question is will you add to them or will you help him?" comforted Reyna, in her odd strict Roman way.

Hearing that in his state of half-consciousness, gave Nico enough of his normal mindset back to realize that he couldn't die before he helped Percy, not after all the son of Poseidon had done for him. Hearing Reyna's Roman-to-the-core words, gave Nico the strength back that he had been letting go before, enough at least to stop being on death's door.

_"Come on Zombie Dude, you are many things, but you aren't a quitter! Where's that obnoxious-little ten-year-old-turned-to-fourteen-year-old-emo-in-denial that we all miss?" _Hearing this teasing goading in his mind spoken in the voice of none other than the son of Poseidon.

Cracking his eyelids open to slits, so he could see the outlines of Reyna and the Coach, Nico did something he only did about twice a year, not even that sometimes. He smiled.

"Thanks again Reyna, I can understand why you're praetor now."

Before anyone could do anything though, the son of Hades' black eyes rolled back up into his head, where he promptly passed out from exhaustion again.

This time though, he wasn't allowed the cool oblivion of simple unconsciousness, no, Nico just had to have a demigod dream. His mind was still in such a daze that he wasn't even aware of speeding along, until he was abruptly in the middle of a sidewalk in a town that he recognized as Pylos, where he was once again in the form of a floating ghost.

He was about to start cursing out his father again, when Nico actually noticed his surroundings for the first time, meaning rather than just seeing the setting, he saw the _people_ he was observing, and he nearly had a heart-attack when he saw Frank frozen in the earth, Percy unconscious and having roots slowly snake over him, effectively tying him up and gagging him. Finally though, Nico saw Piper being kept in a leg-bind, but with her arms free, where she was holding her knife, like she was debating whether to fight or not.

Even though Nico couldn't hear what Gaea was saying, he was almost 100% sure that Gaea was telling the daughter of Aphrodite that if she gave up, everyone else would be spared. While Nico wasn't as smart as Annabeth, he wasn't an idiot, and he knew immediately that the Earth Mother was lying, Piper surrendering or not, she would destroy every living thing to start fresh.

Before he could even open his mouth to scream at Piper to fight, even though he knew she wouldn't have heard him regardless, the daughter of Aphrodite's hand, loosened as she let her knife fall almost in slow motion to the ground.

What happened next occurred in such rapid motion, that Nico had barely enough time to process it before he was jerked awake, but he was glad that his mind stuck around long enough to see what it did, even though it completely broke his heart. The minute Piper's knife had lain flat on the cracked sidewalk, Nico heard a great rumble that he could have sworn was laughing before both Piper _and_ Percy were taken captive immediately by the evil Earth Goddess.

Nico briefly wondered if every time he woke up now, if he would scare the living daylights out of the old satyr and the daughter of Bellona, because this time, his sudden return to consciousness was anything but peaceful with him shouting "Percy!" at the top of his lungs.

While he had no idea when the tears started to flow, in a way he was glad that they did, because that meant nobody could understand what he said next, with it being so distorted by his deviant hysterics.

"Percy, I swear on the River Styx that I will do whatever I can to help you with whatever you need. I don't care what it is, I won't ever abandon, or trick, you ever again."

**Disclaimer:**

**Nico: "I don't trust shelite26 to do the Disclaimer, she may reveal more of my secrets or more of how my inner-mind works. So like the old saying goes, 'if you want anything done, you have to do it yourself.' You know I think my great-great-great-great uncle twice removed, actually came up with that quote…. Anyway, sheltie26 does not own anything remotely related to the universe of Percy Jackson, only Rick Riordan does. Also, absolutely no spoilers of the **_**Blood of Olympus **_**are allowed to appear in the reviews, or I will have to send some of my skeleton buddies after you!**


	14. Chapter 13- Annabeth

**Author's Note: I'm baaaaaaaaaack! *Dodges swords and lemons* I am so sorry, that it's been over 10 days since I updated, it's been a chaotic two weeks for me. Would you believe that I had to go trough what is known as hell-week at my school (it's called that because every teacher gives a test that week since it's right before the end of the marking period)- although going through that was worth it since for my final 1****st**** marking period grades, I got straight A's and I take all honors classes (sorry if that seems arrogant, I'm just happy.) Anyway, besides that, I had unexpected really long Mock-Trial meetings, a trip to New Jersey, a Girl Scout cookie booth, dancing event, badge ceremony, and I had to deal with exploding pastries (don't ask, it's a tragic story). Anyway, would an update tonight and tomorrow night make you guys happy (and non-homicidal)? Tomorrow, I have an appointment with my pediatrician during the day where we are discussing possible places for me to get my hip replaced (very long story, that I will tell you guys more about once I know more). Anyway, because of that, I shouldn't have too much homework, and that means for time for writing! However, I know I can't update on Tuesday since I am going NYC for Girl Scouts, but hopefully I will have another update for you guys on Wednesday! Also, please read the disclaimer at the bottom since I have a question for you guys there. Finally, please excuse the OOCness of Annabeth here, it's hard to capture her sometimes, so I hope I did her justice. Now without further delay, I hope you guys enjoy my special extra-long Annabeth chapter that has a lot of angst and drama! **

**Response to Reviews:**

_**drash52**_**: Thank you (again) for liking my last chapter! And I appreciate your well-wishes on my tests, I hope your history test went well!**

_**XxRoza13**_**: Here's the next chapter! Sorry again, it took so long, but I'm glad you like my writing!**

**Song of the Chapter: **_**All the Things She Said **_**by t.A.T.u. (I feel like this song has been used before for a chapter, but it fits well for this one, so I'm going to use it again).**

Chapter 13- Annabeth

Nearly falling to her death was not how Annabeth pictured spending her day when she woke up that morning. Although, maybe she should have known her day was fated to be disastrous when she woke up on a cold cave floor, head pounding from sobbing her eyes out last night. It hurt too much to even think about what happened last night and what her mother said, how that she had to let Percy go.

Right then though, the daughter of Athena was really hating the Earth Goddess, if it wasn't bad enough that it was her rising that forced Hera to kidnap her Percy (not that Annabeth didn't still hate the Queen of the Gods any less, she just recognized why it was necessary for her to have done what she did), but she also had to be one of the reasons why Percy wasn't with her but on some mini-quest instead, and to add insult to injury, the Mother of the Earth also had to be causing the maximum amount of annoyance right now by forcing all the roots in the ground to wrap themselves around her ankles while she was walking down the mountain.

For the first twenty minutes, Annabeth had been very agile about leaping over various roots and fallen branches, until Gaea finally bested her by making a rock appear in front of her instead, causing her to almost fall off a cliff that had appeared out of nowhere in front of her (she suspected that was once again Gaea's doing as well). Annabeth was a nanosecond away from falling into Gaea's clutches again, when she felt a hand suddenly seize one of her flailing wrists and thrust her backwards to solid ground.

The only thing that kept Annabeth from falling flat onto her back, was her demigod reflexes, but even still, she had to do an awkward ballet-style dance to prevent it. As soon as she regained her balance though, Annabeth immediately whipped around to see who her savior was, and was surprised to see haunted gold eyes located on an innocent chocolate-brown face staring back at her.

"Di immortals, Hazel! Thank you for saving me," muttered Annabeth, ashamed that she had to rely on someone else to save her.

While she was of course grateful to the daughter of Pluto for preventing her from falling, again, off a cliff, Annabeth had always preferred not to rely on anyone. She was already feeling enough humiliation as it was from freezing when she had seen Arachne, making the other three demigods drag her sorry butt up the mountain in the middle of a hurricane.

Just that word though, sparked a sudden on-rush of sadness inside her. _Hurricane. Something that Percy could easily control. Percy. Oh, Percy. Why couldn't you have stayed behind, let someone else take your place for once? Couldn't you see that I need you? Are you even thinking about me? Do you miss me as much as I miss you? Why, oh why, did I let that stupid Seaweed Brain get so close to my heart, where I turn into a clingy Aphrodite girl if he's not by my side 24/7? _

_ Does he know that he is supposedly destined to die? Is he even destined to die? What if his fate is much worse, like being possessed by Gaea? I can't lose him like I lost Luke! Please let my mother be wrong for once! I just know that I can create a plan that will prevent him from being taken from me, if I only have enough time! Percy…. Just please come back to me, Seaweed Brain, you are the other half of my heart and my future husband. There can't be a marriage ceremony without the groom!_

It was those gloomy thoughts that were running through Annabeth's mind, as she and the other three demigods walked to the harbor where the remains of their ship were residing. Annabeth barely even noticed when everyone had walked on board and were setting out to complete various tasks in aiding Leo in the repairs. Annabeth was actually just about to go ask Leo on what he needed, when she heard someone on the left of her suddenly clear their throat like they were tired of not being given attention.

Whipping around, Annabeth saw the last thing she expected, a goddess. Even though she hadn't spoken yet, Annabeth knew she was a goddess by the aura and the fact that she wore a violent black and red dress, shredded in most areas by what she guessed was a knife, with a tiara completely made of Stygian Iron weapons on her head, blending in with her pitch-black hair.

"Finally! You know for demigods, all your reflexes are seriously lacking! If I wanted it, all four of you would be dead right now and you wouldn't even know what had happened!" cackled the, apparently evil, goddess.

"Good for you emo-lady, but would you mind telling us who you are? I only recognize death threats from people I know the names of," inappropriately joked Leo.

"Son of Hephaestus! Watch your mouth, or I can interfere in your path and cause you more heartbreak than that daughter of Athena over there," warned the goddess.

Before Annabeth could ask what she meant about her heartbreak, Jason interrupted by asking, "Look, can you just please tell us your name? Then we can discuss heartbreak all you want later."

"Why don't you ask Athena's brat over there? She has personally met my mother in the pit and she heard me and my siblings before she and her boyfriend ran away like the cowards they are."

Squinting her eyes in thought, Annabeth tried to recall the battle with Nyx in Tartarus, while at the same time, keeping the memories from overwhelming her senses again. It took her longer than she would ever admit, but finally, the ever-present light bulb in her mind lit up with an answer.

"You're Eris! Daughter of Nyx, and goddess of strife!"

"Figured it out finally, have you? This is when I wonder why you are rumored to be the smartest demigod alive. If you were as smart they say you are, you would realize why I'm here."

Annabeth always hated jibes at her intellect; especially since recently she felt more like the dumbest demigod alive, not the smartest. If she had really been that intelligent, she would have cut the webs around her ankles, and she and Percy would never have had to fall into the awful pit in the first place, and Bob and Damasen would still be alive.

Before she could tell Eris off, the evil daughter of Nyx continued with her 'speech'.

"My job is literally to create rifts in various bonds, such as friendship, causing everything and everyone to literally turn against each other once I set my eyes on my target. And my target this time, is you four, plus your three little friends. The Seven of the Second Great Prophecy, how's that for an achievement, maybe now mother will finally admit that I'm her favorite…. That is of no matter to you puny demigods though, just know that you think you are safe and accepting of one another, but watch your backs. I have already planted my seeds, and I can't wait to see how you tear each other apart!

"Oh and I'm sure you are wondering, or will wonder later, why I ma telling you this. That's easy, I get the most satisfaction when my targets try to fight my influence, it ends up with even bloodier results! So by all means, convince yourselves that you are all friends and would never turn against each other, I'm sure it will work!

"Before I go though, the Earth Goddess beckons, I will let you in on a secret daughter of Athena, since I foresee that you will be a direct cause of my joy. Your mother isn't wrong you know, the one you love the most will you cause you the most heartbreak, and you can't do anything to stop it, no plan or intervention! The events are already in motion!" letting that echo around her and with a cackle, the goddess of strife snapped her fingers, melting into the shadows, before anyone could say anything.

There was a deafening shocked silence for a minute until Jason, Leo, and Hazel all shouted out at the same time for her not to worry, they would never let anything tear their bonds apart, and also not to let Eris get to her, that she and Athena had no idea what they were talking about, they were sure that Percy was fine. Annabeth numbly nodded her understanding, but she couldn't shake the overwhelming anxiety from her heart, like she knew somehow that something was very very wrong. _Oh Percy, where are you? You should be back by now._

"Listen up crew! Don't let that wannabe dark goddess plant doubts in our minds, we've all got each other's backs! Which is why I know I don't have to ask twice about people helping me with this ship, it ain't going to repair itself you know! Chop, chop Sparky and Diamond Girl!" Ordered Leo like a command-officer in the army.

"Annabeth though, you go rest. You have had one hell of a day, don't worry about helping; Jason, Hazel, and I've got it. And don't worry girl, Percy is coming back, you couldn't pay that crazy Seaweed Brain enough money to keep away from you," advised Leo, in a sudden moment of gentleness.

Not bothering to argue for she knew that Leo was firm in his ruling, Annabeth reluctantly trudged to her cabin to try to get some rest. However, the minute she closed her eyes all she could see were the moments of her life, all-revolving around Percy. Terrible memories flashed through her mind, such as when she found Percy after he had been bitten by the pit-scorpion, when she witnessed him barely holding up the sky, when she thought Percy had died from the explosion of Mount St. Helens that he caused trying to save her, when she first found out that he was missing, when Jason said that Percy was at the Roman Camp with no memory, Percy letting go of the ledge and both of them falling into Tartarus, the Empousa sinking their teeth into his neck and arm, and when he was seconds from death because of the curses. Normally, Annabeth would go find Percy and with him there, she would be lulled into a dreamless sleep, but right then, her Seaweed Brain wasn't by her side, where he belonged.

Leaping out of bed, and shaking her head to try to get rid of all the self-pitying thoughts, Annabeth aimlessly walked up to the mast where she knew where Leo was working. Why she went to him, she didn't really know, maybe because before when he had been telling her that Percy would come back, his chocolate brown eyes were filled with heartbreak of his own, like he knew what she was feeling on a personal level.

"Annabeth! I thought I told-" Leo broke himself off mid-shout when he saw how depressed and lonely Annabeth's normally bright and stormy grey eyes were.

Smirking to herself, Annabeth walked over with Leo to the railing where they both looked out into the night for a couple of awkward moments. Taking a chance, Annabeth finally opened her mouth to break the silence.

"Valdez, what's bothering you? You seem so much sadder since before Percy and I fell."

Leo looked briefly shocked that someone had seen the change in him, but Annabeth knew that he had secretly wished someone would recognize the signs and talk to him about it.

"One night while you and Percy were gone, Jason, Piper, and I were out here, talking. We didn't notice the warnings until too late, and by then, we had an evil goddess on our ship, Khione and her bright-as-my-gym-shorts brothers. Long story short, Khione had a special hatred towards me, so she swatted me off the ship, where I flew for awhile before I landed on an island called Ogygia. If you want the full story though of Khione, ask Jason or Piper.

"Anyway, I assume you know the myth of Ogygia, where a beautiful girl named Calypso is trapped there and is cursed to fall in love with every hero that lands there, and only when she does, they can leave. I don't feel like giving you every single detail, but what the main thing is, when I got there, Calypso absolutely hated me and I hated her. For most of my time there, I worked on a way for me to get off the island.

"However, the last couple days, Calypso helped me. She is the type of girl not afraid to get her hands dirty and still tell me off for being filthy, and I love that about her. She finally opened up to me, and admitted that she the last hero on her island was Percy.

"She told me how that he had to leave not only save the world but to get back to you, Annabeth. He gave up an eternity of peace to come back to you. Calypso told me though that part of the promise that Percy forced the gods to make last summer included abolishing her curse, which never happened, and Percy didn't check up on.

"Just as we were finishing the ship, the magic lifeboat appeared on the shore, signaling that I could leave because Calypso had officially fallen for me. Before I left, because I knew I had to even though it killed me, she kissed me and I swore on the River Styx I would come back to her," summarized Leo, eyes far away in the distance with the girl who had won his heart.

"But please Annabeth, you are the first person I have told this though. I told you first because you know what I am going through with having your other half being away with Percy being gone on the moment, and I trust you not to break my confidence. Basically, just swear to me that you won't tell anyone," pleaded the fire-user.

Annabeth wasn't shocked, not really, to learn that Percy had been on Ogygia, she had expected it when he had admitted that he had been marooned on an island back when they were 14. However, she just didn't expect it to hurt as much as it did to learnt that he could have easily left her, and she would have had solid proof that he was alive. She suspected though that a lot of her bitter feelings were coming from the fact that Calypso had cursed her and Percy after he left. But she knew all to well though what love made you do, so she knew she shouldn't be that bitter towards the girl, especially since her heartbroken was also broken right now.

"I swear on the River Styx to not tell anyone what happened to you on Ogygia, unless given permission by you. Leo though, even if I don't tell Percy, you really should. He did what he could for Calypso, and please keep in mind that he is just one person, he can't help everyone, even if he wants to."

Leo opened his mouth to reply, but was caught off once again, by a sudden crash behind them. Spinning around revealed a large eagle laying on the deck, looking exhausted but uninjured.

Not giving anyone Leo or Annabeth a chance to react, the eagle unexpectantly started to molt its feather until the form of Frank took its place. Staring at the son of Mars wide-eyed, Annabeth didn't recognize Frank bowing his head while sobbing his eyes out and muttering incoherently, all she noticed was that Frank was alone. There was no Piper or Percy in sight.

**Disclaimer:**

***Ducks knives being thrown by a livid Annabeth***

**Me: "Seriously? What is this, stab the author day?"**

**Annabeth: "No, but I can make it a thing! How dare you steal my Percy from me again!"**

**Me: "Again? Just how many times has Percy been stolen from you?"**

**Annabeth: "More times than I care to admit, this is why Rick Riordan, the actual author and creator of us, is hated by me."**

**Me: "I see, I'm curious for your opinion though, Annabeth. Since it's been over a month since **_**Blood of Olympus**_** has been released, if you were a reader, would you still want me to continue this story?"**

**Annabeth: "I can't tell you since I am a character, I just know that I will make a very devious plan the type that I reserve for people who hurt Percy and for people who spoil books."**


	15. Chapter 14- Frank

** Author's Note: Hello everyone again, so sorry that this is a day late! I got halfway through typing this chapter last night before I had to stop because I had gotten a lot of shots and a finger-prick at the doctor's office yesterday, and that was affecting my typing, causing me to make a lot of spelling errors, and just making it hurt really to type. Also, I didn't get back from the doctors until late and I had a ton of homework to do, so I couldn't start writing until late at night, and I was really tired (I know it's a lame excuse, but it's true), and I knew I had to get up early this morning to go to NYC. Furthermore, this chapter was actually pretty difficult to write since it's told by someone in the present telling their past (if you have read the Cambridge Latin books you will know what I mean), so please forgive me if there is any confusion on the past/present tenses. Additionally, it has come to my attention that some people have great suggestions for me, but don't want to say anything. Guys, I am always open to new ideas, I write and post so I can improve, and I can't do that without you guys. Which brings me to my next point; I recognize that it's been a month since **_**Blood of Olympus **_**came out, so I want to know if everyone is still interested in this story? Anyway, enjoy this chapter (and the next update should be posted sometime over the weekend)!**

**Review Response:**

_** drash252: **_**Like any secretive author, I reveal nothing about my plans, just remember that nothing is exactly what it seems, and everything in the story happens for a reason (wow I sound philosophical). Thank you though for supporting me no matter how long I take between updates; I have heard of a lot of readers where they get outraged if an author doesn't update daily, so I really do appreciate the fact that you understand! **

_**amer11000:**_** Thank you so much for the feedback and suggestions for my story! I already have some of the Prophecy planned out, but for the rest, I will take what you said under consideration. Thanks again (and I'm glad you agree with me on the whole deaths add more depth to the story concept, you and I would get along fantastically). **

**Song of the Chapter:**

_**Too Little, Too Late**_** by JoJo**

Chapter 14- Frank POV

The whole time when he was flying home, Frank's heart was slowly breaking into pieces. Not only from what Periclymenus had told him in Pylos, but also from the survivor's guilt of having witnessed his two close friends be kidnapped to be likely tortured and killed, and not have been able to do anything to help them. Also, the fact that he knew he had to break this news to Jason, Annabeth, and the rest of the crew certainly didn't help his already crushed heart.

Those bitter thoughts completely engulfed his mind the whole 2 hours that it took him to fly back to the Argo II in eagle-form, and even then, he couldn't help but wish it took him longer to come back, no matter how exhausted and emotionally drained he was. But he knew that the longer he procrastinated breaking the news, the worse it would be.

However, that didn't stop him from collapsing onto the deck the minute he arrived and curling up in a ball, in an attempt to make the world go away. He didn't even register in his mind the footsteps pounding down the steps and the shouting that quickly followed them signaling that either Jason or Annabeth had gone blow-deck to get Leo and Hazel.

Frank was too consumed with his own misery to realize this though; he barely even registered when Hazel ran forward, crying in relief that he was alive, and then bending down on the floor, whispering "What happened, Frank? It's ok, it's all over, whatever happened."

In fact, the only thing that Frank's brain actually recognized was the heart-broken gasps of Jason and Annabeth, and their question asked in unison of, "Where is Percy/Piper?"

This question set off another round of gut-wrenching sobs from the son of Mars, even though in the back of his mind, he knew it was a mistake to let that much emotion show due to it igniting the crueler side of imagination, causing the son of Jupiter's and the daughter of Athena's minds to immediately jump to the worst-possible conclusion.

Frank registered in his hear though, that it was his duty as a Roman, a child of Mars, and as a member of the Seven to deliver a report of what happened, regardless of his feelings. So with a deep breath, Frank launched into the tragic tale of the quest of Pylos.

"Guys, I want you to try to remain stoic throughout my story, it will make it easier on everyone that way. Now, after Percy, Piper, and I were whisked off the ship, the trident-transportation thing took us to Pylos, but more specifically, we were deposited in a fountain surrounded by mortals.

"The minute we had gotten our bearings though, we were jumped by a group of monsters, that if I remember right, consisted of a bunch of telekhines, the hydra, and this creature called Kampe, who used to guard the Cyclops and Hundred-Handed-Ones back during Saturn's rule.

"Now, I wanted to stay and fight, I really did, but Percy and Piper convinced me to go, since we all knew that we had a limited amount of time, and I knew in my gut that it was crucial for everyone that I visited my ancestor there.

"To cut a long story short, it took me about a solid 10 minutes or so of wandering to find what appeared to me as an abandoned looking building. I don't know what made me do it, maybe it was my ancestor guiding me, but I walked over to the building, and was about to enter it, when I noticed that there was a mural painted on the door of the beginning of the Golden Age of the gods, with them all in the Throne Room having a grand old time, and seemingly not arguing for once. Something about that door intrigued me, so I inspected every inch of it, until I discovered that on the very edge of the door in the bottom right of it, there was a golden delta, the Greek letter for D.

"That was when I knew that I had found the right place; again, I don't know how I knew it, but I just did. So not really taking the time to be cautious, which looking back on it, I know that was a mistake, I shoved the door open for it to reveal a whole hallway about 20 miles long, and all of it was decorated by various murals. Now I'm no artist, but even I have to admit that those murals, at least at first, were beautiful all showing the beautiful times of the gods, some even had victorious moments of demigods and other heroes.

"However, about half way along, the murals started getting much darker and gruesome with their scenes. To be honest, I don't really want to remember it, so just know that there were worse scenes than Saturn eating and then throwing up his kids, or Jupiter cutting him up.

"After my eyes just couldn't take the violence anymore, I learned not to pay attention to the murals, and just focused on where I was going. I had to keep walking about another 10 miles until I finally got to the heart of the building, where I saw a very old man, looking like he was seconds from taking his last breath, sitting in the middle of the stone floor, meditating.

"Again, not to make this story any longer than it needs to be, just know that the first few moments were very awkward, filled with small-talk, until Periclymenus actually started telling me the stuff that I needed to know, what I came down there for. Looking back on it now, I wish that we had stuck to the small talk about the weather and who won the latest gladiator tournament.

_"Sit, young Zhang, sit. We are aware of the time issue so I will talk as fast as an old man like me can. _

_ "First off, know my adolescent ancestor, that very tough times are rapidly approaching not just for you, but for your friends as well, well harder issues that demigods deal with on a normal basis. But to win this war, sacrifices must be made, no matter how unfair they seem to be. _

_ "As you know, I did not cause that earthquake that the Romans blamed me for, so many years ago. But I knew that it wasn't worth arguing, and it would only cause more trouble not only for me, but also for the others around me, if I kept up my insistence of innocence, even if it was true. That is why I willingly took the blame for something I didn't do, sacrificing my pride and honor, for the good of the people around me and for my Empire; and know that one of the Seven of the 2__nd__ Great Prophecy, whether it is you or not, I cannot tell, will have to sacrifice something much worse than their pride. One must willingly give up their life to defeat the Earth Goddess and her husband, it is the only way."_

_ "No! There is nothing in the Prophecy about someone willingly giving up their life, you're lying!"_

_ "Watch your tongue, boy! The prophecy can refer to anyone in the Seven; you for your __**fire**__wood, the daughter of Aphrodite for the __**storm **__that her rage and determination can cause, the son of Hephaestus, is obvious for his __**fire **__powers, the daughter of Athena for her the recklessness her loyalty can cause, similar to the nature of __**fire**__, the son of Jupiter could go either way, for he can summon __**storms**__, and lightning is made of a type of, and can cause, __**fires**__. Now finally, you have the son of Poseidon, whose father is literally the god of __**storms**__. But consider this Frank Zhang, are you so sure that the world means Gaea? _

_ "Think of this, everyone in the world needs and uses wisdom, every part of the globe is touched by war, all of the underground, in every country, has riches of some kind, every person needs fire and heat to survive, and there is beauty in everything, no matter where you look. Also, the sea covers over ¾ of the globe's surface; and finally, there are clouds and lighting in every region of the sky. _

_ "Have you, or any of your friends, ever considered that the Prophecy isn't so cut-and-dry? That there could be more than one interpretation to it?_

_ 'That is why, my naïve ancestor, you need the help of others, no matter which interpretation you look at, you cannot win this alone. The gods, will help once the Athena Parthenos is returned, but until then, they will not be of much help. You need every demigod or fighter you can get, including the Hunters, the Amazons, and every Greek and Roman that exists, and you all need to be united. That said, the main fight is still performed by and with the Seven in Athens; the side one, that if lost, would be just as disastrous, will take place at Camp Half-Blood with the enemies being mostly monsters and Titans. Your and your friends' battle will be against most of the giants and titans, Gaea, and Tartarus. _

_ "For your fight, if all goers right, the Olympians would help you, if your friends are able to return the statue in time, which can very likely not happen. However, in the other fight, in case you are worried, the minor gods will be aiding them, so know you all aren't alone. _

_ "Now, young Zhang, you must be wondering why I have summoned you here, because I'm sure you are wondering in that cheeky mind of yours that I could have told you all this over our connection. That is true, but then I couldn't have given you this."_

_ Before Frank could respond, his old ancestor seemingly pulled a box out of thin air and thrust it unexpectantly into his hands, quickly pulling away before he could say anything or give it back. _

_ "It is very crucial that you remember that everyone has the potential to be a leader, whether they know it or not, but the key thing is to just believe in themselves, and that, I believe is the most important thing I've told you so far. That is why I am giving you Pandora's Box, don't ask how I got it, you wouldn't believe the year I've had, but it signifies that anyone can give up hope, only a true leader has enough courage to face tough times and still remember the light at the end of the tunnel._

_ "Before we part our ways young Frank, I want you to know that very old things are re-awakening, even things that were meant to permanently cease to exist. Now, be gone! Let this old man rest for the first time in over a millennia, but I give you one last warning, there is nothing you could have done!"_

_ Again, before Frank could say anything, he watched Periclymenus fade into nothing, just leaving Pandora's Box clattering on the floor. Reluctantly the son of Mars stopped to pick up the box, and started on the trek back to where Piper and Percy were still battling the monsters, running over everything Periclymenus had said in his mind, but focusing really on his last warning of that he couldn't have done anything, and wondering what on Pluto that was about. _

Frank snapped himself out of his memories, in time to the 4 other demigods looking quite strangely at him, which he supposed they had a right to, he did just break off mid-story. It was just that his meeting had overwhelmed him too much, that his mind needed a few minutes to just relive it all, in another attempt to process it. Not letting the embarrassment of the flashback get to him though, Frank hurriedly repeated everything that had happened during the meeting back to the rest of the Crew, and quickly continued to the next, and most depressing part of the story, the kidnapping of Piper and Percy.

Informing Jason and Annabeth of that had to be the hardest thing that Frank had ever done, and he was a Roman demigod, who are notorious for having awful lives. For it was awful enough for him to watch his two friends get knocked out and be sunk into the rubble by Gaea, he couldn't imagine the pain Jason and Annabeth were going through, hearing about what had happened to their other halves of their hearts.

"I swear to you guys though that once Gaea unfroze me, after she whispered in my ear that she had everything now, so she would let me have a 'free-passage' home, I immediately transformed into a mouse, and searched the rubble for hours for any sign of Percy or Piper. I found no sign of them personally, although I did find Piper's knife, lying discarded and call it crazy, even sad like it sensed that it wasn't with its owner.

"Exhausted and about to collapse, only then did I transform into an eagle and finally fly back here."

If Frank had been exhausted before, he was almost on death's door now from how tired he was, he never knew flashbacks and talking took so much out of a person. He didn't dare look up though, for he knew that if he did, he would face the wrath of a devastated son of Jupiter and crushed, and most likely homicidal, daughter of Athena. Frank had just heard an intake of breath, probably from Leo when his least favorite voice in the world started echoing throughout the ship,

"I told you puny demigods that I would get what I want, and look what I have here? Two little heroes, just like I knew I was going to get. However, I wanted to let you all know that the time isn't right; I may have my pawns but I still need to wait another week for the feast of Hope to rise, I am nothing if not punctual. So to make the time pass, I guess I will just have to 'test' my heroes just to see how strong they really are and if they are really worthy of having the honor of helping me rise, it won't do for me to have weak sacrifices! Don't worry though, just because I have my two heroes, doesn't mean that I hate all of you any less, or that I suddenly plan on making life easier for you all. No, the fun is just getting started!"

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: "I dedicate this chapter to **_**amer11000**_**, for giving me some awesome suggestions regarding the prophecy!"**

**Frank: "How can you dedicate something if you aren't the real owner of this story/plot-line?"**

**Me: "I may not own the actual idea and story-line, unfortunately, only Rick Riordan does, but this is still my fan-fiction." **

**Frank: "But- but-"**

**Me: "Oh, don't question it, just remember that this is my fan-fiction and all I ask is for people not post any spoilers for the actual book!"**


	16. Chapter 15- Percy

**Author's Note: Hey guys, this is the chapter that I said would be out by the weekend, sorry about that, but I do actually have a legitimate excuse this time, besides Girl Scouts and school stuff. Last Saturday, I had to go up to Yale Hospital to get a brain MRI, and the nurses there had to inject contrast into my arm through an IV, but they did it wrong, and they popped a blood vessel in my arm, so now it's all bruised and sore. Saturday night and all of Sunday it hurt a lot, and even though is getting better, it's not 100% better yet, which is why this chapter is late, since it hurts a lot to type, so please excuse any typos you find, I'm trying my best. Also a heads up to everyone, I am going to try to finish the story by the New Year, so that gives me around 40 days to write 20 chapters (I really hope I can do it, please tell me though if you think that's an unrealistic goal, but keep in mind I do have Thanksgiving and Winter break coming up). Now, regarding this chapter in particular, I apologize that it is actually really short, especially since this is the first Percy POV since Chapter 2, and while this update is not one of my best, at least in my opinion, it sets up a critical plot-line for upcoming chapters. Also before you guys read, I just want to say a HUGE thank you to all my dedicated readers (something I don't do enough), for this story now has a little over 3000 views! That's more then my first Fan-Fiction (The House of Hades (FanFiction)) had at the point where I'm at now in this story, and it now has almost 30,000 views! So everyone keep on reading and being awesome, you guys are the ones that keep me motivated to write!**

__**Review Responses:**

_** amer11000**_**: From what I have heard from people that have already read Blood of Olympus, Percy and Annabeth don't have any POVs, which I find outrageous, and Hazel and Frank barely do anything at all. So basically, the book is mostly centered on Leo, Piper, Jason, Nico, and Reyna, the people who have POVs. This is why when I was planning this story out, I made sure to have all the characters have big parts and be included in general, even if when the fan-fic started, I focused more on Percy and Annabeth. I completely agree with you though on the idea that Rick created way too many characters for him to properly work with them all, and he undermined a lot of characters by limiting their powers and their importance. I understand Rick's pain while writing this story, but I have done my best to give each character the spotlight they deserve, because I believe just as you do that all the characters should be included in one way or another. In fact, that is actually why I chose to make Gaea kidnap Piper instead of Annabeth, who would be the first female character to choose. This way, I am still able to focus on both Percy and Annabeth, for he is the one who was kidnapped and she deals with the shock of it, but am still also able to include Piper and what she copes with, and also given the plus of focusing on Jason as well. Finally, I'm glad people do actually enjoy my cliff-hangers and I'm not making everyone want to strangle me… Anyway, thanks for the review and for continuing to read this story! **

_**Same**_**: I am so happy to know that people do actually like my story and my writing style! It means a lot to just have the knowledge that people will continue to read this even if the actual book has been out for over a month. So thanks for reviewing and reading my story!**

**Song of the Chapter:**

_**All the Small Things**_** by Blink-182 **

Chapter 15- Percy POV

Groaning as he came around, Percy wondered how many times he has been knocked unconscious in his life, for he was beginning to feel like Jason, being knocked out at every turn. He knew that if he, and Jason, kept this up, they were going to have permanent brain damage.

Gathering the strength to open his eyes, the first thought that raced through his mind was if he had already suffered enough trauma to cause hallucinations, for he would swear on his life right now that he was in the Daedalus' Labyrinth, the exact same one that collapsed when the inventor sacrificed himself, back when he was 14.

Deciding to worry about it later, Percy painfully turned his head to the side to see Piper was still unconscious. She was across the room from him, with both her arms and legs were tied together with chains made of Celestial Bronze, the chains tied to a post on the stonewall behind her, and her mouth was stuffed to the maximum with a cloth and then completely taped over. Regaining his bearings more, Percy realized he was in the exact same predicament, even with the gag as well, which he did not get. How he had missed that before though, he had no clue, he just knew that Gaea was taking every precaution available on making sure her two captives didn't go anywhere.

_Oh gods, I need a plan and fast!_ frantically thought Percy, _I wish Annabeth was here, she would know exactly what to do, and make it look effortless while doing it._

Just the thought of Annabeth brought a sharp stabbing pain to his heart, for he knew that once she found how that he had been kidnapped, again, she would be completely crushed. If anything what he had been told by Piper, Leo, and Jason before was true, how Annabeth had almost completely lose it when Hera had kidnapped him and wiped his memories, he knew that the knowledge of Gaea taking him captive would almost break her since the Earth Goddess most certainly didn't have the best interests on the world in mind.

Before Percy could drive himself insane though with the thoughts of his other half, the door in the corner burst open. Percy hadn't noticed it before, for it was completely made of stone, and it was surrounded by a room that was entirely made of stone as well, making it very unnoticeable. With that realization though, Percy was suddenly struck with the realization that he was truly in the Labyrinth for he recognized this stone room, it had been abandoned before when they had passed through, plus the fact that there was the gold Greek Delta carved into the bottom of the door.

_Curse my ADHD_, was what Percy was bitterly thinking to himself for while he had been distracted with identifying his surroundings, Gaea had approached to where he lay on the ground, and he hadn't noticed her until she was literally a foot away from him.

Percy almost wished that he hadn't zoned back in then, for the deranged Earth Goddess suddenly smiled behind her veil that was the color of mud, displaying a rotten set of teeth, that had worms slithering between gaps of teeth, and her gums and tongue was the color of dried blood. Then he was really wishing that he could escape back into his mind, when she reached down and unexpectantly ripped the tape off his mouth, taking quite a few hairs and skin cells with it.

"What did I tell you Perseus Jackson? I told you that I would have two of the strongest demigods to use as my sacrifices to fully awaken. Yes, even I admit how you two are very strong, but that gives me just that much more joy in breaking you into nothingness.

"Already, I am succeeding in shattering you, by gathering what your weaknesses are, like your loyalty to each other and your individual insecurities, I know exactly how to exploit them to cause the maximum amount of anguish to all."

"Go to Tartarus, Gaea! You will never win!" spat Percy.

Gaea continued on with her gloating like Percy had never retorted, "Even as we speak, your friends are slowly unraveling, their willpower and minds crumbling from grief. Why, just look at that idiotic son of Jupiter and bratty daughter of Athena? They are ready to attack the rest of the crew because their weak minds can't stand the thought of you and that petty daughter of Aphrodite over there being in my clutches. How-"

"Don't you dare talk about Annabeth! She is the smartest demigod alive, way smarter than you are, for you need the help of twelve of your immortal children and pit of a husband to aid you in rising, she used purely her intellect and the resources available to defeat her biggest fear!"

Percy immediately wished that he had kept his mouth shut, for apparently that had been going to far since Gaea reared her ugly hand back, that had branches and leaves entwined in it, and slapped him hard across the face, snapping his head back against the stone floor.

"Silence! Remember foolish Sea Spawn I have complete control over you, and your fate! Not only that, but in my hands, I also hold the destiny of the world, meaning I determine who lives and dies, like your precious friends and family!"

Before Percy had a chance to react to that declaration, Gaea waved her hands and his mind was immediately filled with unspeakable visions of genocide and outright human brutality.

He saw monsters devouring both humans and demigods while they were still alive, friends turning against friends from paranoia brought on by insanity, the giants torturing any living being, and the whole world encased in fire.

Those visions were quickly followed by a look into the mortal world, where everything was dull, and the humans all wore tattered rags with electric collars around their necks, serving the giants who were whipping them into compliance.

But the worst image was the last one that was forced into his brain, displaying the bodies of Annabeth, Nico, Reyna, Grover, Rachel, Piper, Hazel, Jason, Frank, his mother, Paul, Tyson, Thalia, Gwen, Dakota, Clarisse, Poseidon, and all the rest of his friends lying on top of each other, all having died in the most gruesome ways possible.

"Now you see Perseus Jackson what the fate of the world is? And I guarantee you, like I guaranteed that I would have you as one of my sacrifices, that this will happen. The only thing that will prevent me from doing this is something you can give me."

He had just barely recovered his wits, when Percy heard that, and he was filled with so much shock, that he couldn't help asking, "What could I possibly give you?"

"I'm glad you ask! You see son of Poseidon, I want you. If you pledge yourself to me, and serve faithfully by my side for eternity, I will spare the ones closest to you."

Ignoring how disturbing this conversation was turning, Percy asked, "Why do you want me?"

"Power, my boy, power. You don't even realize how much power you alone hold; you say Athena's brat is the smartest demigod? Have you ever realized that you are the most powerful? Tell me this, have you ever thought about how many powers you possess?"

Not waiting for an answer, Gaea plowed on, "You have all powers associated with water, including bending it to your will and using it to heal you, you can create devastating earthquakes and hurricanes _with_ lightning, hyrdogenesis, but those aren't even your greatest powers. Your ultimate power is…"

Gaea's voice had been steadily lowering in volume with each word she spoke, making the last word she spoke barely a whisper, "Blood-bending."

"No! Absolutely not! I would rather die than force someone else to go against their will!" bellowed Percy, who was going ballistic from the strain he was putting on his chains from trying to escape.

"I'm sure you will change your mind once you have had time to think about it. Keep in mind all you would have to do to spare your loved ones is to follow me, and you can swear your allegiance by telling me what that pesky ancestor of that wimpy son of Mars said. Do that, and I may even consider using another male demigod, to preserve your powers that could rule the world.

"However, I see that you are still unconvinced. No matter, let's see what a few hours with our resident expert in your special power will change your mind. Be warned though Perseus, I have given him permission to use any means necessary in convincing you to, oh what's that saying, 'come to the dark side'."

With that cheesy movie quote reference, the Earth Goddess spun on her heel quickly, or as fast as a lady made out of dirt and was still half-asleep could turn, and walked confidently towards the ominous stone door.

Just before the Gaea finished her dramatic exit, she paused and looked back again, with a smirk evident under the veil.

"I hope you know Percy that your friends don't deserve such dedicated loyalty from you. You should know that it is because of that daughter of Aphrodite over there, that you are in this situation, she could have saved you know, but she didn't. Now you are here with me, and I'm not letting you go!" gleefully cackled the insane Earth Goddess.

With that, the clearly mentally unstable embodiment of the world finally left, leaving Percy tied up and helpless, with a daughter of Aphrodite struggling to regain consciousness across from him. Before Percy could begin to struggle against his restraints or wonder what exactly Gaea had meant when she said that Piper could have saved him, or both, the door flung open again, something that shouldn't have been possible from something that weighed easily over 75 pounds.

Percy was able to immediately recognize his latest visitor, the resident blood-bending expert, despite Percy had only seen him personally once before. He knew in his heart that he was in deep trouble for he was hopelessly restrained and unable to reach his weapon, which is what instigated the string of curses under his breath, _Really Fates, really?! What did I ever do to you?_

**Disclaimer: **

**Percy: "Is this really necessary? What did I ever do to you?"**

**Me: "Nothing, I am just expanding off of Rick's idea of blood-bending and the idea of two sacrifices to awaken Gaea."**

**Percy: "Do me a favor and let Rick handle his own ideas? He's not as sadistic as you, and besides he owns my world and myself anyway."**

**Me: "It's true he owns everything Percy Jackson, but we are also speaking of the man that ended a book by having you and Annabeth fall into Tartarus."**

**Percy: "I refuse to acknowledge that statement. However, anyone who spoils **_**Blood of Olympus**_** is at the mercy of Rick!" **


	17. Chapter 16- Piper

**Author's Note: I'm not going to even try to make an excuse for you guys, just know that I am terribly sorry that this chapter took so long. On other hand though, Happy (Late) Thanksgiving- at least to you Americans! I'm curious, what are you guys all thankful for? I, for one, am very thankful for not only my good-as-it-can-relatively-be health and family, but also to all my loyal readers who wait patiently for each chapter! I love you guys! Anyway, enjoy this Thanksgiving update, and I will hopefully have the next chapter up sometime early in the week! Oh and for reference to avoid confusion, this starts off right after Chapter 11, right after Piper was knocked out after agreeing to Gaea's terms, so if you need a refresher on what happened, go back to Chapter 11, not last chapter. **

**Review Responses: **

_** XxRoza13**_**: Here's your update! I am so sorry it took this long, so thank you so much for being so patient, it's not always easy writing decent chapters and still keeping my grades up! But I am thrilled to hear that you love my story, enjoy the chapter! **

_**drash252**_**: Please don't worry about not reviewing for my last chapter, I'm not one to get mad about that. I'm happy if I get one review from anyone, and it overjoys me to know that you try to review every chapter. Also believe me, I totally understand having a busy schedule, its why it takes me so long to update, so no worries! Anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

_**I actually wasn't listening to any music while writing this chapter, instead I was watching **__**Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1**_

Chapter 16- Piper POV

Piper didn't know how she knew that only five minutes had passed since Gaea knocked her out after she had accepted the dire terms that had been laid out be fore her, but she just did. She did not know if her short-term state of unconsciousness was a good or bad thing, considering she didn't want to deal with Gaea or any monster at the moment, but at the same time, she knew while unconscious, Gaea could implant any image into her mind.

However, Piper did not have much time to wonder that particular notion, for the minute her brain started functioning again, she heard a soft but diabolical laugh, that echoed in her head.

"You're awake, I see daughter of love! I wouldn't contribute that to your own mind though, more like to my own wishes to have you conscious. How does it feel to know that you, and you alone, are responsible for the son of Poseidon's and your own predicament? To know that you willingly gave up your knife when you could have fought?"

"What are you talking about, Gaea?" spat Piper, even though she couldn't physically see the Earth Goddess, she knew it was her that was speaking in her ear. "You told me that if I surrendered then you would spare Frank!"

"That I did, Aphrodite spawn, that I did. But you should know that I only meant that I would spare the child of war at that moment and on his way back to your 'Argo II'; I by no means specified how long he, or anyone else for that matter, would be 'spared'. You should take a lesson from the child of Poseidon over there or even the son of Hades, they know from personal experience to get a valid promise, you must make me swear on the River Styx."

Piper felt like her blood was bubbling from anger, whether it was directed at Gaea or herself for being so stupid, she didn't know. So even though Gaea continued to taunt her about her careless mistake, she did her best to tune the Earth Goddess out by deciding to have a look around on where she was.

She felt a gag in her mouth, which she guessed made sense because of her powerful charmspeak, but she also felt her arms and legs were chained together. _Bound and gagged to a tee, I wonder if Gaea or any of the giants have seen old mortal spy films_, pondered Piper.

From what she could see, she was in a room made of pure stone, and she guessed was soundproof. The minute her eyes landed on the chains on the wall across from her, she quickly adverted her eyes to something less disturbing, Percy.

Surprisingly enough, this was the first time she had noticed him, probably because he was so filthy from being trapped in mud when they were above the surface, that he blended right in on the dirty stone floor. She saw that he was chained even more tightly than she was, and he too had the gag and tape over his mouth, even though she couldn't guess why, since it wasn't like he had the power of charmspeak like she did.

What concerned her the most though was the fact that his arm still bent at a very strange angle, and it looked like the welts on his chest hadn't healed, going by how shallow his breathing appeared to be, even when he was unconscious.

Looking intently on her best friend's boyfriend's face, Piper privately thought to herself that for all the things she has heard that he has accomplished as his years of knowing he was a demigod, he truly did look very young and innocent, at least in his sleep. Piper felt like her chest was being torn apart with guilt, because she knew that if she hadn't given up, he would at least have had a chance to escape from Gaea's clutches. _I swear, right here and right now, on the River Styx, that I will do my absolute best to protect Percy Jackson from having to do anything more, for he has already suffered enough. _

Before she could add anything more to her promise, Piper was pulled from her thoughts by the stone door on her left, suddenly shuddering open. While Piper privately hypothesized that the visitor would be Gaea, come down to gloat in person, for she must have realized that Piper had long since tuned her out, but was proven wrong. For the person who slipped into the room wasn't the Earth Goddess, or any relation of hers, instead it was Medea that proudly strutted into the room, like she was walking on the red carpet in Hollywood rather than just entering a prison cell made of stone.

"Positively lovely to see you again daughter of Aphrodite! Not so powerful now are you, all chained up? Where's your boyfriend, the son of Jupiter? Did he get tired of you? No one to save you now?" taunted the powerful sorceress.

The gag in her mouth, unfortunately muffled piper's response with a single phrase that would have made the teachers at her old boarding school wash her mouth out with soap.

Medea saw the problem though, and knew that even though it was very unwise to allow a charm speaker like Piper the use of her tongue, she decided that it would be no fun to rile the girl up if she couldn't respond. So taking her sweet old time, Medea bent down and quickly pulled off the tape on Piper's mouth, allowing her to spit out the cloth.

Not even taking a second to wince in pain from having some of her skin ripped off, Piper snapped with, "Shut up Medea, didn't you learn your lesson the last time, when we destroyed your store? How did that feel, an ancient all-powerful charm speaker being bested by three teenage demigods?"

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because before she could even blink, the sorceress' hand shot forward and slapped her cheek, hard enough to make Piper later spit out blood.

Piper carefully weighed the situation in her head, she was bound by chains, meaning he was completely helpless against Medea's attacks, and wouldn't even be able to stop the sorceress from murdering her. She considered just stalling for time, which was a favorite tactic of Annabeth's, which meant keeping up the banter, but that gave Medea more time to notice Percy who was still lying unconscious, and completely helpless on the floor, which would allow Medea to do whatever she wanted to him.

This gave Piper one option left, fight despite being tied up, which meant she would have to use the one weapon left to her, her charmspeak. Squinting at Medea's form that was currently pacing, she could see a knife strapped to her side. Sighing, Piper realized that she would have to somehow convince a fellow charm speaker to kill herself. The thought made Piper sick to her stomach, but she knew it had to be done, if not for her sake, then for Percy's.

Taking a deep breath, "Hey Medea," not waiting for the slow turn she knew would happen, Piper continued on. "I'm sorry for my taunt before, that was a low-blow that you didn't deserve. I know you try very hard to be the best, and being beaten, hurt worse than anyone can know. "

Piper was relatively surprised that Medea's eyes had actually gone unfocused and she was nodding along with her words.

"It wasn't like this before, was it? The undermining, that is. You know whose fault that actually is? It's Gaea's. She doesn't give you the respect that you deserve, the respect you got from being with Jason all those years ago. I know that deep down, you do regret using your charmspeak for murder, and I am _confident_ that if you died right now, that Jason would take you back, and you would get the happily-ever-after that you deserve."

"How do you suggest I die, Piper?" came Medea's slurred and submissive response.

The use of her actual name, made Piper almost not want to continue with her plan, but one look at Percy's unconscious body, making her remember her oath, made her take a deep breath to steel her nerves.

"You have a dagger right there, Medea. Why not use it to take your own life, and be with Jason again?"

It didn't matter that Medea was vile and evil, Piper still quickly shut her eyes when she saw the sorceress remove the knife from its holster, and draw it across her own jugular vein in her throat. Piper just wished that she could have plugged her ears for in Medea's last seconds of life, she regained her senses.

"I place a thousand curses on you love spawn! Gaea will not only have your blood, but she will have your sanity! I was never going to kill or even harm you, so my death is not self-defense, making my blood on your hands!" bellowed the dying sorceress.

Not a moment passed though before Medea died, when Piper heard Gaea's voice in her head again.

"Very good, daughter of Aphrodite, very good! I am most pleased at your daring to make the most powerful charm speaker to ever live, slit her own throat! Who knew that Miss Beauty Queen had it in her?"

Piper was not ready to be taunted so soon after making someone kill themselves, even if they did deserve it, and was supposed to have died centuries ago. She felt the bile creeping up her throat with each word Gaea spoke.

"Now that I know what you are capable of, I ask for one thing; you must fully unlock your powers by actually charm-speaking one to die. I am not talking about convincing someone to kill themselves or another, I am talking about actually forcing a person's organs to shut down and to make their blood to stop flowing. You may think this is impossible, and while it would be for anyone but the most powerful charm speaker, think of what you did not even a month ago with that silly dragonhead. You, and you alone, forced it to wake up, your words were what convinced its brain to start functioning. So, child of beauty, if you do this for me, I will reward you beyond your heart's desire."

"No! Absolutely not; you're sick! Do you really think I am going to fall for one of your 'deals' again? I'm not an idiot!" bellowed Piper.

"I thought we would hit this little snag, but believe me, I will have my way eventually, like I always do as you've seen. However, in the mean time, I wish to see if your loyalty to your friends is just as great it is."

Before Piper could even formulate a response to that, Gaea made her eyes roll up into her head, and forced everything to go black once again.

(**Author's Note: Ha, I thought about ending it here, but I decided to give you guys a little bit extra since this chapter took me so long. Also, well this next part is very action-filled but alone, it would be a very short chapter. Anyway though, this skips to right after the end of last chapter, with the door opening again, and Percy is conscious.)**

Blearily opening her eyes again, Piper really wished that Gaea didn't have the power to knock people out whenever she wanted. Not having the energy to curse the Earth Goddess though, she turned her attention to the door-way where an utterly revolting giant stood.

Piper searched her memory and recognized the giant as Polybotes, the bane of Poseidon, which made sense considering he was carrying an evil-looking trident and one look at Percy, proved that his very presence was making the son of Poseidon feeling very ill.

Although, Piper wished that she had been awake when Percy had come around, so she could at the very least apologize for their situation, she settled for just watching Polybotes stride into the room.

She was very careful not to make a single sound for she knew from the stories of Percy, that he would do anything for a friend, including letting himself be tortured if he thought she was in pain that could be avoided.

"Oh what do you know son of Neptune, you are in the exact same position I promised that you would be in a couple weeks ago at Camp Jupiter! While it is not under the sea, it is below the surface, which still counts for something, and you are here, completely at my mercy!" bragged the giant, to which Percy defiantly rolled his eyes, not dignifying the taunt with an actual response.

What Polybotes did next though, nearly made Piper gasp in shock. By the time he had finished his taunt, he was standing over Percy's body that was still chained, even if he wasn't gagged anymore, but instead of harming the demigod, the giant kneeled over and started snapping the chains to free him.

While Polybotes is doing this, with Percy's eyes so wide, Piper thought they would pop out of his head, the giant continued his taunts.

"Even better now, I have a hostage over there, and given your fatal flaw, you would do anything to not see her harmed. I do still plan on torturing you mercilessly until your mind finally snaps, and only then give you the relief of death when it serves my glorious mother's needs. But first, I want to test something. How is that a mere demigod as yourself, managed to escape the Lord of the Pit himself, and evade me throughout Tartarus? How did you defeat the twins, even if they are idiots, when they have so much more power and strength than you could ever hope to possess?

"My mother thinks that there is something very powerful about you, but I am afraid that I have to disagree with her. I think you are nothing but a cowardly mortal Perseus Jackson, who survives by mere coincidences and extraordinarily good luck. So to prove to her that she is in fact wrong in this instance, and that you don't serve to rule by her side, I, Polybotes, the bane of Neptune, challenge you, Perseus Jackson, to a duel."

Piper thought that Polybotes must be off his rocker, if he thought Percy would actually say yes to a duel, especially after the giant just told him that he wanted to torture and then kill him, something Percy apparently agreed with her upon.

"What if I say no? Or if I do accept, what do I get if I beat you?"

"You are under my control Son of Poseidon, you don't get a choice on this matter. And for the question if what you get if you are victorious, don't worry about that, for trust me, that won't happen."

"You want to know how I managed those things Polybotes? Fine, I accomplished those things because I had my friends right by my side, cheering me on. They have never abandoned me, and they have always given me the hope and strength to keep fighting. It is, in fact, because of my friends and the knowledge that I will return to them, is why I _will _defeat you, _again_."

What Percy did next almost gave Piper a heart attack, for she, nor Polybotes, had noticed that Percy was completely unchained then, allowing him the ability to jump up where he had been lying during that entire conversation, and charge Polybotes, while he was caught off-guard.

Still running, Percy took a deep breath and forced his hand into fists, summoning water out of the damp cellar air. Not wasting a moment of his advantage, Percy thrust his hand out, blasting the first round of water in Polybotes face, trying to make the giant even more off-balance.

While Piper's breath caught in her lungs when Polybotes was able to just swipe his hand, and the water automatically turned green, and fell to the ground with a splash, making the stone-floor sizzle, Percy looked completely unsurprised at this.

Before Polybotes could gather his wits, Percy clenched his hands into fists again, summoning more water in his hands out of seemingly thin air. This time though, instead of just blasting it at the giants face, Percy did a strange twirling motion with both his index fingers, ignoring his broken arm, which Piper knew had to hurt like Hades, making the water swirl around the giants legs, completely engulfing them. Barely pausing to breathe, Percy suddenly thrust his hands forward, like he was trying push something, only for the water around Polybotes legs to solidify to a concrete-like substance, so the giant couldn't turn it to poison. By doing this, Percy successfully rendered the giant immobile, at least from the waist down.

Piper knew that Percy knew that he didn't have a second to waste, so moving faster than lightning, and completely ignoring his current injuries, the son of Poseidon ran at full speed at the giant, leaping up at the last second, and in mid-air, unsheathing his sword that had apparently returned to his pocket. Before Polybotes even knew what was happening, Percy stabbed him through the eye and then straight through his skull, making the giant disappear into what looked like a sickly bluish green light.

Although once again Piper didn't know how she knew this, she recognized at the back of her mind, that Polybotes was not in fact, dead, even though his head had just been impaled with a Celestial Bronze sword. Taking a moment to think about it, Piper realized that he wasn't dead because a god had unfortunately not aided Percy.

Only just then did Piper realize that she had the gag back in her mouth, something that had completely slipped her mind in the excitement of the fight. Piper supposed that Gaea must have sent in one of henchman when she was unconscious to redo it, something she wished that the Earth Goddess hadn't done, for all she was able to do now was give Percy the greatest smile she could, since she couldn't actually speak her praise, or her concern either.

Piper felt like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest, whether from adrenaline or excitement that Percy had just single-handily killed a giant, while he was critically injured, even if the giant didn't remain dead. Unfortunately though, Piper's sense of triumph didn't last even 10 seconds, before the room's temperature unexpectantly took a nosedive of a solid 15 degrees.

While she had no clue what was going on, Piper suddenly felt like all the happiness in the world had been sucked out of the room, making the daughter of Aphrodite to being to shiver uncontrollably.

It was because of this that Piper barely noticed the stone-door opening again, but she wished later that she hadn't noticed it at all, for when she caught sight of who the next demon was, she screamed as loud as the gag allowed her to.

**Disclaimer: **

**Me: "Who ever can tell me the two Harry Potter references from this update, will get a dedication next chapter."**

**Piper: "Forget that, why must you torture me?"**

**Me: "To keep things interesting, I can't just torture Percy you know."**

**Piper: "You are eviler than Voldemort; I have half a mind to spoil **_**Blood of Olympus **_**for you."**

**Me: "Don't you dare! Anyway, I don't own Percy Jackson, or anything associated with him, only Rick Riordan does. Oh and I guess I should say that only J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, considering the (now three) references in this chapter."**


	18. Chapter 17- Reyna

** Author's Note: Hello everyone, this wasn't too long of a wait, was it? Believe me, I'm trying my very best to update regularly, since my goal is to finish this by New Years (January 1****st****). Now I don't want to rush my writing, but after Winter Break, which ends on New Years for my school, the first week or two back is heavy prep for mid-terms and then it's either the second or third week of January, when it's the midterms themselves. So considering I take all honors classes with no study hall or lunch in my schedule, I won't have any time to write at all in January, and I would really rather not wait until sometime in February to start reading **_**Blood of Olympus**_**. However though, the competition for my Mock-Trial team on December 11****th****, my school Carillon concert (which is the biggest concert of the year for my school) on December 18****th****, working on and filming a very time-consuming- but fun- Girl Scout project, and just the general stress of the holidays, will take up a lot of my time this month. Making long story short, my schedule is hectic, which will make updates will be even more random than before, I'm sorry. Anyway, enjoy this update with a-character-that-I've-never-written-before's POV, Reyna! So this means if you need a refresher, go to the last Nico POV back in Chapter 12. Oh by the way, this chapter is kind of like the last, where it could stand alone as two really short chapters, but I chose again to combine them; alright, now you can enjoy!**

**Review Responses:**

_**drash252**_**: Here's your update! How did your exams go? I hope you did well, I know how nerve-wracking they can be! Thank you so much for keeping up with my story even while you had exams, that means a lot to me! **

_**amer11000**_**: I'm guessing that you love Piper? XD I try my best to give every character, or at least all of the Seven their time to shine at least once in my story, because I feel like Rick didn't do that enough. Anyway, I'm so happy that you love my fan-fiction! **

**Song of the Chapter:**

_**You Don't Know Me**_** by ****Elizabeth Gillies **

Chapter 17- Reyna POV

Seeing the normally stoic and reserved son of Hades collapse to his knees and start sobbing his eyes out, babbling incoherently, was so surprising to Reyna, that it almost gave her heart failure. As shocking as the scene was though, it did strike a cord in her other wise tough Roman heart, because it reminded her a lot of her younger self when she and her sister, Hylla, escaped from the pirates that had taken over their home. Looking at Nico, she didn't see the emo/goth-like teen, she saw a confused young man who didn't know where to turn. 

Exchanging a side-glance with Coach Hedge who looked as caught off guard as she did, but had the same determination set onto his face-which made sense considering fauns can sense emotions- they both started towards Nico, who was oblivious to his two companions approaching him, lost in his own misery.

"Nico, are you OK?" awkwardly asked the daughter of Bellona, but received no response except for a filthy look shot at her by the Coach. _Alright, that was a stupid question_, she reprimanded to herself, _does he look ok by any standards? Ugh, I really am not good at this, I'm better at providing leadership, Hylla was, and still probably is, much better at supporting other than I ever hope to be._

"Cupcake, I know you don't want to hear this, but trust me, talking about it will help. It is enough to literally drive a person out of their mind, if they keep all their emotions bottled up inside," tried the normally violent Coach Hedge.

Reyna honestly thought that the faun's persuasive words would work, but all Coach got for his troubles was a vehement shake of the head.

Sighing, Reyna realized that the only way to get Nico to open up was to reveal a little of her own soul first, and hopefully then, the son of Hades would finally realize that he could trust them.

"Nico listen, I understand that you aren't used to having people there to listen to your problems, but Coach and I are here now. You may be wondering how I know you are normally very secretive, well let's just say I can see a lot of myself before I joined the legion in you.

"When I first arrived at camp, hysterical after parting ways with my sister who had always looked out for me, I wouldn't willingly talk to anyone, let alone trust them. But you know what got me to open up? Just the legion showing me that they truly were my family and supported me.

"I had been traumatized after being help captive by savage pirates, who let's just say hated me and everything I stood for, and was nearly catatonic. And while it took me awhile to open up, I soon realized that the legion wasn't going anywhere and that they were actually the people that I desperately needed to talk to.

"So what I'm trying to say here Nico is, Coach and I have, and always will have, your back. We aren't going anywhere, even though I know you have convinced yourself that the minute you talk, we'll disappear," admitted Reyna.

With baited breath, it took Nico almost a solid 5 minutes to lift his head to look at them, and with wide eyes, she saw that his normally dark brown eyes, were almost completely blood-red, and his normally pale-complexion was chalk-white. _I wonder if this is why children of the Underworld never open up, when they do, they look like vampires_.

"Yes, I know I look like a blood-sucking creature of the night, don't worry I'm not going to kill you. It's a child of Hades, and I guess Pluto too, thing, the pale complexion and red-eyes I mean. My dad is determined to remain stoic at all costs, something he passed onto his kids. So on the rare occasion we do open up, he invented a back-up plan for himself, which was to look as unappealing as possible so the person that we were talking to would flee.

"Anyway as for why I was crying? Well, that goes a little bit more personal than just being upset over losing my home or my sibling, though I have dealt with both things. But you're right, I know I need to trust both of you, if we ever want to complete this quest and prevent war between our camps.

"I'm going to be blunt here, I was born in the early 19th century in Italy, don't ask me why I look 14, that's a story for another time. But when I was born, it was a crime to be what I am, and I don't mean the Big Three Pact, I mean my sexuality. I'm gay," Nico just about whispered the last sentence out of terror, but Reyna and Coach Hedge still had no problem hearing him. They knew better though than to show any reaction though, not when Nico was finally opening up.

"I've known for awhile, but the only person I have ever had a crush on is Percy. The problem is though that I still like him, even though I know I have no chance with him, not when he is so happy with Annabeth.

"Now, I'm not going to go into what happened with the Arai, but just know that I was hearing all the people I care about mocking me for being what I am and saying that they will never accept me, that I'm a failure."

The entire time Nico had been speaking, he had his eyes closed, as if by having them closed, he could prevent remembering that he was revealing his deepest secret. However, when he admitted the last part of what he had heard from the old misery-inflicting ladies, his eyes suddenly snapped open like he had been shocked.

Before Reyna could comment on what she had just learned or ask what startled him so much, Nico screamed "No!" at the top of his lungs.

"What? Nico, what the Pluto is the matter?"

"The statue, it's gone! I can't feel the material energy coming off it anymore into the Earth!"

Coach Hedge chose this time to voice his not-so-quiet confusion, "Cupcake, I'm going to ignore your epic mood-swing and get to the point, what in all things Gaea are you talking about?"

"Listen, I've always been able to sense where the statue is, being as my dad is the god of the Underworld and riches. While my power over the earth isn't as strong as Hazel's, just like her control over the dead isn't as strong as mine, we both have some power in the other's expertise. Now that statue is made out of pure magic and gold, even if I was the weakest and naivest child of the Underworld to walk the planet, I would still be able to sense that statue, it has that strong of an aura."

Not giving herself the chance to panic, Reyna immediately forced her mind to switch from sentimental mode to determined planning mode.

"Ok, ok, this is what we are going to do. Nico, you said that you are able to sense that statue?" Not waiting for a response, Reyna plowed on with her plan. "Then are you able to track it to the location where it is now if you concentrate?"

"I've never attempted anything like that, and while again, Hazel would be the better choice for this, but since she isn't here, it doesn't hurt to try."

Before anyone had a chance to react, Nico got down on his knees once again, but this time, instead of curling up into a ball, he placed his hands evenly on the earth and bowed his head like he was in prayer. That and combined with the severe furrow of his eyebrows, Reyna could tell that he was putting all of his powers into action, trying desperately to find the statue that would prevent the world from ending.

"I got it! Quick grab on to me, before I lose it!"

In the past several occasions when they shadow-traveled, Reyna and Coach Hedge would always have to be the one to grab onto Nico, forcing themselves to ignore his mumbled protests of not liking being touched. However, now, it seemed like Nico had no such reservations considering he was the one that snatched both of their arms and in mid-step, shadow-traveled away.

It was a good thing though that Reyna was trained to not show her emotions on her face, since she was absolutely terrified of shadow-traveling. Ever since she was little, she hated the dark, and shadow-traveling made her fear ten times worse, since she had heard the myths about how Pluto would stalk people who were traveling with the aid of the darkness.

This time around though, Reyna discovered that she really couldn't be bothered with her calm-inducing breathing techniques, since her mind was already distracted with the thought that while Nico's sudden willingness to touch them was inspired by the need for speed, the milestone wouldn't have been possible if he hadn't been able to trust them first.

The shock-inducing landing over crashing into the ground was enough to end that trail of thought though for the daughter of Bellona, as she shook her head silently, commanding herself internally to focus on the problem at hand.

Normally, if monsters weren't attacking them, the three allowed themselves a 5-minute rest period before they would regain their bearings and set out a plan. However, this time, they had barely gotten to their feet again, before Nico was sprinting in the south-east direction of from where they landed.

Internally thanking her rigorous athletic training, Reyna was able to take in her surroundings while she kept pace with the stick-thin, but apparently athletic, son of Hades, with the faun galloping quickly behind them.

They had landed on an island that looked like it was made of entirely of white-colored things. The buildings were dirty-white, the clothing was bleach-white, even the sand was a sparkling-white; Reyna wouldn't be surprised that in the winter, this island looked like the only color it was capable of being was white.

Squinting her eyes though, Reyna realized that she actually knew the name of the island where they had landed, it was a tiny place called Mikonos, known for their beaches' lustrous qualities.

Before she could give it any more thought though, Nico skidded to a halt in front of her, something that wasn't easily done considering they were actually on a beach right then, and the sand wasn't the kind that easily stuck-together. She was about to ask why they had stopped, when Nico suddenly side-stepped, allowing her to see the two figures that were just lounging on the sand in front of them, guarding the statue that stood right behind them.

"Hyperion, you owe me 50 drachma, I told you that they would be here before next week!"

"Well sorry, Theia, you know as well as I do that demigods aren't normally very attentive, how was I supposed to know that we were dealing with some of the very few observant ones."

With wide-eyes, Reyna recognized the two bickering beings from her mythology studies at Camp Jupiter. She never thought she would think this, but for once she was glad that Octavian was obsessed with the idea of the Greeks being alive, because he had forced the entire camp to learn almost every single aspect of Greek mythology, onto of their normal Roman studies.

Reyna recalled that Hyperion and Theia were both siblings of Kronos, and that even though they were brother-and-sister, they were also husband-and-wife. While she barely learnt anything about them, she remembered that they both adored sparkly and powerful items. Which was why they stole the statue, Reyna comprehended, not only was it properly stolen on Gaea's orders, it was also a beacon of power, like Nico had said, and it was extremely sparkly, despite it being many centuries old.

Taking a good luck at the Titans though was easier said than done, apparently the couple loved sparkly things so much that they covered themselves with so much eye-attracting things, they were nearly impossible to look at. While Hyperion appeared to be completely made of flames, although at second-glance Reyna saw that he looked very worn down and fatigued, the opposite of Theia, who looked like the classic girly-girl, since it looked like she had let a kilogram of sparkles be poured on her.

"Look away!"

Before she knew what was happening, Reyna was suddenly linebacker tackled to the ground by the Coach, who immediately shoved a hoof in front of her face, blocking her vision.

"You idiotic cupcake! If Nico hadn't shouted that warning, you would be permanently blind now!"

With a jolt, Reyna realized that her two companions were both right, she realized it now that her eyesight had started to blacken around the edges from actually staring at the two bright figures. Frowning to herself, Reyna acknowledged the fact in her mind that that was probably how the two Titans disabled their enemies, they made them lose their sight, so they were easy-pickings from there.

Taking a huge chance, Reyna hesitantly looked up and saw something that shocked her for the umpteenth time that day, Hyperion had Nico pinned to his side with a fireball burning perilously close to the teen's throat, and there was a huge pile of sparkling silver dust next to them, that looked like it was hinted with liquid gold.

Proving why her mother was known as the Roman goddess of war and subsequently war strategies, Reyna quickly pieced together what had happened while her vision had been obscured. Nico must have used his influence over the shadows to tone down both Hyperion's and Theia's shine, allowing himself to see normally. Since the two, or at the very least, Theia, depended on their blinding-factor as their offensive weapon, they didn't know what to do with an actual opponent, which no doubt gave Nico the advantage he needed, giving him time to get his sword unscathed from the normal place of it by his side, and stab Theia either in her heart, stomach, throat, or skull.

"You murdered my wife! She'll be stuck in the depths of Tartarus for centuries now, and I am not going down there to accompany her! That evil pit just let me go because of my mother's constant badgering, no way in all things Cyclops will I ever voluntarily go back! So now, because of you, weak little demigod, I'm without a companion!"

Reyna privately thought that was extraordinarily selfish of Hyperion to be worrying about his romance when his wife just died, but she had the intelligence to keep her mouth shout, something that apparently the Coach lacked.

"You traitorous shiny devil, what kind of husband worries about himself when it was his wife that was just stabbed, even if she was vile and even shallower than you!"

Apparently that wasn't what Hyperion wanted to hear, because in response to the Coach's words he allowed his fireball to briefly touch Nico's skin, causing angry sweltering-red blisters to appear immediately.

Seeing Nico's pupils dilate and his lips whiten because of the pain, Reyna immediately reached to her side where she kept her gladius, and was about to recklessly charge the fiery Titan, but she was beaten to the punch by an electric arrow, that suddenly flew over her head, impaling itself into Hyperion's throat.

No one even had a nanosecond to react before Hyperion's hand fell away from Nico's throat, and his exploded like confetti into golden dust. Reyna was about to leap up from where she still was lying on the sand, when about a dozen adolescent girls, all wearing completely different outfits, and looking very unique, suddenly revealed themselves from their various hiding positions, such as tents, chairs, umbrellas, one girl had even hid behind a dog that was dozing on a towel.

Reyna must have looked like she was about to pass out from being so overwhelmed, Coach Hedge certainly did. Nico, on the other hand did an excellent fish-out-of-water impression, when one girl who had blue-black spiky hair, a Death-to-Beauty t-shirt, silver jacket, and ripped black jeans, with a tiara on her head completing the look, stepped forward, glaring at the pile of golden and silver-dust.

"Be careful what you wish for, you traitorous Titan, for where you get fire, there is always lightning. Let that be a lesson to all, don't mess with any demigod, especially the Hunters of Artemis and my cousin!"

**Disclaimer:**

**Reyna: "Why do you like revealing traumatic back-stories?"**

**Me: "It adds spice to the story; why? Doesn't Rick develop more character histories in **_**Blood of Olympus**_**."**

**Reyna: "Well, what actually happens is…"**

**Thalia: *Jumps out from behind a tress* "No! There must be no spoilers, my father, the all-mighty Zeus, forbids it! Anyone who spoils **_**Blood of Olympus**_** or claims that the Percy Jackson world is theirs when it's clearly Rick Riordan's, is subjected to punishment-by-lightning-bolt!"**


End file.
